Cibrarp  of €he  ^heolocjicd  Seminary 

PRINCETON    •    NEW  JERSEY 


PRESENTED  BY 

The  Library 

of 

Benjamin  B.  Warfield 

1921 


BR  1720  .C8  F3  1906  c.l 
Faulkner,  John  Alfred,  1857- 
1931. 

Cyprian:  the  churchman 


TOfti  orf  the  Kinmlxnti 


Cyprian:   The   Churchman 


By 

John  Alfred    Faulkner 

Professor  of  Historical  Theology  in  Drew 
Theological  Seminary 


CINCINNATI:   JENNINGS  AN  D  G  R.\  HAM 
N  E  W    Y  0  RK;   E  AXON      AN  I)     M  A  I  N  S 


Copyright,  1906,  by 
Jennings  &  Graham 


CONTENTS 


Chapter  Page 

I.    Carthage  and  the  Church,           -         -  5 

II.    Conversion,     -  18 

III.  Cvi'K  1  an' s  Judgment  of  Heathenism,  26 

IV.  A  Pope, -  36 

V.  Before  the  Storm,        -         -         -         -  47 
VI.    The  Decian  Persecution,           -         -  58 

VII.    A  New  Question  in  Discipline,     -         -  74 
VI 1 1.    Cyprian,  the  Lapsed,  and  the  Church 

in  Carthage,                   ...  84 

IX.    The  Novatian  Church,         -         -         -  102 

X.    Mkrcy  and  Help,                        -         -  122 

XI.    Tin.  Lord's  Prayer,      ....  j^0 

xii.   Cyprian,  the  Catholic,           -        -  147 

XIII.    W       I         ian  a  Roman  Catholic?          -  167 

xiv.   The  Great  Controversy  with  Rome,  17^ 

XV.   The  Crowning, iSr 

3 


APPENDICES 


Page 

L    The  Interpolations  in  the  De  Unitate 

Ecclesi;e, 208 

II.    Chronological  Order  of  the  Epistles,  216 

III.    Select  Literature,  -         -         -         -  219 


Index, 225 


j&    £?    j& 


NOTE 

Readers  who  wish  to  verify  statements  in  this  book,  or  to 
study  further  Cyprian's  life  and  testimony,  will  please  remember 
that  in  the  references  to  his  Epistles  the  numbering  of  the  Oxford 
edition  ( followed  by  Hartel )  is  first  given,  and  then  in  parentheses 
that  of  Migne  (followed  by  the  Ante-Nicene  Library).  In  the 
case  of  a  few  of  the  Epistles  the  numbering  is  the  same  in  both 
editions. 

4 


Cyprian:  The  Churchman 


CHAPTER  I. 

CARTHAGE  AND  THE  CHURCH. 

SAILING  through  the  Strait  of  Gibraltar  from 
the  west,  one  passes  Morocco  on  the  south  for  about 
200  miles,  and  then  Algeria  for  600, — both  the  an- 
cient Mauretania,  only  the  northern  edge  of  which 
was  taken  possession  of  by  the  Roman  Empire.  A 
small  Eastern  section  of  Algiers  was  the  province 
of  Xumidia,  conquered  by  Rome  B,  C.  46  and  en- 
tirely incorporated  into  the  empire,  in  which  was 
the  town  of  Hippo  Regius  on  the  coast,  about  120 
miles  directly  west  of  Carthage,  the  seat  of  the 
bishopric  of  the  greatest  man  God  ever  gave  to  the 
Ancient  Church — Augustine,  The  eastern  section 
of  that  high  Algerian  coastline  until  it  turns  directly 
south  and  runs  south  for  300 miles,  is  Tunis, ancient 

5 


6  Cyprian:  The  Churchman. 

Carthage,  which,  with  part  of  Numidia  and  the 
coast  of  Tripoli,  formed  the  province  of  Africa  Pro- 
consularis.  Then  the  mariner  sails  on  east  a  thou- 
sand miles  till  he  comes  to  the  famous  city  of  Alex- 
andria, 500  miles  south  from  Carthage,  separated 
on  land  by  vast  wastes.  The  reader  will  thus  see 
how  misleading  our  rough  and  ready  designation  of 
North  Africa  is  in  giving  us  a  glimpse  of  ancient 
relations.  The  provinces  of  Egypt  and  Africa  had 
no  more  to  do  with  each  other  than  India  and 
Canada  to-day.  Egypt  was  imperial  province,  oc- 
cupied by  an  army,  and  under  the  emperor's  imme- 
diate control;  Africa  was  a  senatorial  province, 
governed  by  one  of  the  consuls  chosen  by  lot. 

Carthage  was  only  one  hundred  miles  from 
Sicily,  which  was  the  connecting  link  between  Italy 
and  the  South.  Its  position  made  it  of  great  im- 
portance to  Rome.  Who  controls  Carthage  con- 
trols the  Mediterranean,  or  at  least  goes  a  good 
way  toward  controlling  it.  So  thought  France, 
which  in  1 88 1  brought  Tunis  under  her  wing,  and 
thus  offset  the  possession  of  Gibraltar  by  England. 
No  doubt  war  between  Rome  and  Carthage  was  in- 
evitable. There  could  not  be  two  masters  of  the 
western  Mediterranean.  It  is  not  necessary  to  give 
here  the  history  of  those  fearful  Punic  wars,  in  one 


Carthaci:  and  tih:  Church.  7 

of  which  the  greatest  general  in  all  history — a  man 

against  a  nation — performed  prodigious,  apparently 

ssible,  feats,  and  brought  Rome  to  the  verge 

of  ruin.  Suffice  it  to  say  that  finally,  B.  C.  14'*. 
Carthage  fell  into  Roman  hands  and  like  Jerusalem 
later,  was  razed  to  the  ground.  Twenty  years  after, 
Cains  Gracchus  tried  to  found  a  colony  there  but 
failed.  Julius  Caesar  saw  the  importance  of  this, 
but  fell  under  Brutus's  dagger  before  be  could  carry 
out  his  intentions.  The  first  emperor,  Augustus, 
however,  succeeded  in  establishing  a  Roman  colony 
on  the  site  of  Carthage,  which  in  the  third  century 
when  our  hero  came  on  the  stage,  was  one  of  the 
chief  cities  of  the  empire. 

The  Carthaginians  were  Phoenicians  or  Canaan- 
ites.  They  were  a  Semitic  race,  but  had  none  of 
the  ennobling  religious  conceptions  of  their  kindred, 
the  Jews.  They  are  an  everlasting  object  lesson  by 
contrast  of  what  Divine  revelation  can  do  for  a 
people.  "Who  made  thee  to  differ?''  They  were  one 
of  the  bloodiest  and  crudest  races  of  antiquity,  and 
"their  religion  the  most  hideous  ever  practiced  by 
pie  emerged  from  barbarism."  If  there  had  to 
be  a  war  between  Carthage  and  Rome,  it  was  for 
the  infinite  gain  of  the  world  that  Rome  was  con- 
queror,     lint  they    were   not  exterminated ;   in   the 


8  Cyprian:  The;  Churchman. 

new  Carthage  they  lived  on  with  the  Romans.  But 
the  city  became  Roman  through  and  through:  its 
baths,  its  games,  its  monuments,  its  pursuits.  The 
Third  Legion  was  quartered  there,  and  great  and 
useful  works  were  executed  under  their  supervision. 
That  there  was  intermingling  of  blood  there  can  be 
no  doubt.  But  in  any  given  case  we  can  not  tell 
exactly  how  the  matter  stood.  Did  Cyprian  have 
Carthaginian  blood? 

It  is  not  necessary  to  say  that  the  Roman  civili- 
zation which  took  the  place  of  the  Punic  had  its  de- 
fects, yes,  its  fearful  faults.  It  was  also  coarse, 
cruel,  and  licentious,  though  not  in  the  same  de- 
gree, and  idolatrous,  though  without  human  sacri- 
fices. What  old  Carthage  was  we  can  read  in  the  tre- 
mendous novel  "Salammbo"  by  Flaubert,  who  has 
gone  into  the  conditions  with  minute  and  exhaustive 
learning.  In  the  papers  of  the  restive  and  tumultu- 
ous Carthaginian,  Tertullian,  a  greater  man  than 
Cyprian,  thought  not  historically  so  significant,  we 
have  a  picture  drawn  from  life  of  that  civilization 
which  came  after.  It  is  sufficient  to  read  only  one 
book — that  "On  the  Shows."  Pompey  consecrated 
the  theaters  to  Venus,  and  made  them  in  a  sense  a 
temple.  Other  shows  had  been  devoted  to  Bacchus. 
So,  says  Tertullian,  we  have  these  two  evil  spirits 


C.\KTii.\(,i:  and  iiir  ChuBCH.  9 

in  sworn  confederacy  with  each  other,  as  the  patrons 
of  drunkenness  and  lust  The  theater  is  im- 
modesty's peculiar  abode,  where  nothing  is  in  repute 
but  what  elsewhere  is  disreputable.  So  the  best 
path  to  the  highest  favor  of  its  god  is  tin-  vileness 
with  which  the  Atcllan  gesticulates.  The  very  har- 
lots arc  brought  upon  the  stage.  "Let  the  senate,  let 
all  ranks  blush  for  very  .shame.  The  tragedies  and 
the  comedies  are  the  bloody  and  wanton,  the  im- 
pious and  licentious  inventors  of  crimes  and  lusts. 
If  it  is  right  to  indulge  in  the  cruel,  the  impious, 
and  the  fierce,  let  us  go  to  the  theater  and  games. 
Let  us  regale  ourselves  there  with  human  blood.1 

In  a  students'  club  of  a  German  university  I 
once  heard  one  of  the  members  highly  laud  old 
Rome,  and  say  that  a  minister  could  not  do  better 
than  to  study  the  ('.reek  and  Latin  classics,  and  take 
from  them  his  models.  How  far  the  speaker  was 
m  solemn  earnest,  or  how  far  he  spoke  in  banter 
«.r  bravado,  I  do  not  know.  But  for  such  a  one  a 
course  in  Tertullian  would  be  an  excellent  disci- 
pline. There  were  redeeming  features  of  course  in 
the  Roman.  The  Roman  farmer  worked  and  made 
every  one  who  belonged  to  him  work.  But  even 
here  pagan  hardness  appeared  which  left  its  im- 


1  De  S, 


io  Cyprian:  The:  Churchman. 

press  on  European  civilization  from  that  day  to  this. 
"Pliny  saw  him  or  his  native  tenant  in  Byzacium 
yoking  an  old  woman  with  an  ass,  a  practice  not 
dropped  till  late."  Is  it  dropped?  I  have  often 
seen  women  harnessed  to  milk  wagons,  and  sturdy 
girls  helping  the  dogs  pull  home  loads  of  clothes  for 
Monday's  wash.  The  Roman  knew  how  to  civilize 
in  his  way;  he  had  a  fine  military  and  civil  or- 
ganization. He  represented  the  majesty  of  law, 
to  which  Paul  appealed,  and  under  which  the  new 
faith  made  its  way.  But,  as  Archbishop  Benson 
finely  says,  a  "fearful  shadow  dogged  all  this  na- 
tional and  individual  vigor,  the  inherent  vice  of 
the  Roman  spirit,  the  scornful  inhumanity  with 
which  uncivilized  populations  were  unhelped  and 
repelled.  It  was  this,  with  its  ever  pursuing  train 
of  consequences,  this  and  not  the  Vandals,  which 
brought  the  last  wreck."2 

Who  introduced  Christianity  into  Carthage  or 
when,  we  shall  never  know.  When  Cyprian  meets 
us  it  was  already  widely  established  over  Numidia 
and  proconsular  Africa.  It  was  nothing  to  him  to 
bring  together  fifty  or  eighty  bishops.  Doubtless 
numerous  Christians  came  with  the  early  colonists, 
and  with  the  constant  intercourse  between  Carthage 

2  Cyprian :  His  Life,  His  Times,  His  Work,  XXVII,  XXVIII. 


Cartiiac.i:  AND  tiii:  Church.  it 

ana  Rome,  like  that  between  Boston  and  Halifax, 
it  was  inevitable  that  an  aggressive  and  attractive 
faith  like  Christianity  would  be  widely  represented. 

Africa  was  a  second   Italy— it  belonged   rather  to 
Europe   than   to  our   Africa.        Its   literature    was 
Latin.     When  the  Church  at  Rome  was  a  Greek 
exotic,    its   clergy,    its    literature,    its   language    all 
Greek,  the  Church  in  Africa  was  Latin.    The  great 
African  Tertullian  opened  Latin  literature   in  the 
closing  years  of  the   second   century   before   what 
we  know  as  the  Latin  Church  was  born.3     Africa 
had  a  Latin  Bible  before  Rome— she  was  the  mother 
land  of  Christian  Latin  literature,  and   in  this,  as 
Harnack   says,   she  had  a  world-historical  signifi- 
cance.4    Far  from  being  the  teaching  Church  of 
the  west,  Rome  for  two  centuries  had  not  a  writer 
of  note,    while   in   Tertullian    Africa  produced   a 
writer  of  range,  power,  and  fertility. 

But  Carthage,  like  Rome,  had  its  Greek  element. 
For  the  play  lovers  of  his  city  Tertullian  wrote  his 
books  on  plays  in  Greek/  Her  lovely  and  hoble 
martyr.  Perpetua,  Bpoke  Greek  with  Bishop  Opta- 

3  h  is  not  meant  to  deny  the  priority  of  Mm,  "  M»  the 

thai  i  ertnllsan  wiii 

4Mi  lubrotung  det  Chmto,.  i  »?,  s  5«s 

De  Corona,  6. 


12  Cyprian:  Th£  Churchman. 

tus  and  Presbyter  Aspasius.  The  Greek  transla- 
tions of  the  oldest  African  Martyr  Acts  may  be  as 
old  as  the  Acts  themselves.6  This  Greek  element, 
however,  was  not  a  preponderating  one,  as  it  was 
in  Rome.    Africa  was  the  first  Latin  Church. 

At  any  rate  when  the  first  historical  notice  of 
the  African  Church  meets  us  in  Tertullian  we  have 
a  strong  and  wide-spread  society.  "Our  numbers 
are  so  great,"  he  says,  "constituting  all  but  the  ma- 
jority in  every  city.  What  will  you  make  of  so 
many  thousands,  of  such  a  multitude  of  men  and 
women,  of  every  age  and  every  dignity?  What 
will  be  the  anguish  of  Carthage  herself,  which  you 
will  have  to  decimate,  etc.?  Spare  Carthage  if  not 
thyself."7  As  to  the  extent  and  influence  of  Chris- 
tianity, Asia  Minor  was  the  only  parallel.  It  had 
even  gone  among  the  original  Carthaginians,  though 
to  what  extent  at  the  time  of  Tertullian  and  Cyprian 
we  do  not  know.  Probably  not  largely,  as  the  names 
of  the  third  century  are  almost  altogether  Latin. 
But  among  the  martyrs  there  were  Punic  names — 
in  fact,  the  first  African  martyr,  A.  D.  180,  was  a 
Pune.  In  the  fourth  century  it  was  necessary,  or 
at  least  very  desirable,  for  the  bishops  and  priests 


6  Harnack,  Ibid.  514. 

7  Ad  Scap.,  2  and  5.     Cf  Apol.,  A.  D.  197,  chs.  2  and  37. 


Carthage  and  Tin:  Church.  13 

to  know  funic,  though  there  never  was  any  Tunic 
translation  of  the  Bible.     To  the  Punes  the   Bible 

read  through  an  interpreter,  or  they  had  their 
BermoiU  in  Punic.8  But  there  was  no  Punic  Chris- 
tianity as  there  was  a  Celtic. 

A  most  interesting  fact  is  noted  by  Tlarnack, 
which  may  help  us  in  our  search  for  the  origin  of 
Christianity  in  Carthage.  And  that  is  the  strong 
military  element  in  the  speech  of  the  Church  writers 
there.  Not  only  in  Tertullian,  a  son  of  a  soldier, 
hut  more  strikingly  in  Cyprian,  where  military  lan- 
guage is  almost  standard  and  prescriptive.  So  also 
the  large  use  of  legal  language,  which  can  not  he 
referred  entirely  to  the  converted  lawyers,  Tertul- 
lian and  Cyprian.  The  Church  speech,  says  Ilar- 
nack,  which  was  created  in  Africa,  shows  that,  so 
far  as  it  was  not  the  common  speech,  it  was  the 
product  of  immigrant  officials  and  military  men.* 
Docs  not  that  mean  that  Christianity  owed  its  origin 
and  support  in  Africa,  as  elsewhere,  in  part  to  con- 
verted soldiers? 

The  greatest  man  in  the  African  Church  was 
Tertullian,  and  the  greatest  man  in  the  Christian 
world  of  his  age  (say  155-230).    He  is  well  worthy 


8  Sec    Z.ihn,    (ics<  hi- ht  ■  stamcntli.  hrn    KjUIOOt,    I,  40-44. 

Harnack,  Mission  und  Ausbrcitung,  515.  9  Ibid.  516. 


14  Cyprian:  The:  Churchman. 

of  treatment  in  this  series.  Not  a  single  life  of  him 
exists  in  English,  except  the  old  study  by  the 
learned  Bishop  Kaye  (1826,  3d  ed.  1845),  anc* 
hardly  an  essay  in  the  Theological  Reviews,10 
though  the  Germans  have  a  whole  shelf  of  books  on 
him.  The  greatest  literary  master  of  Church  his- 
tory in  Germany,  Professor  Albert  Hauck,  of  Leip- 
zig, sprang  into  fame  by  his  fine  life  of  Tertullian 
in  1877.  Tertullian  was  the  watershed  of  ancient 
Church  history,  the  turning  point  of  primitive  and 
Catholic  Christianity.  The  Church  owes  a  vast 
debt  to  him,  because  for  her  he  wrote  the  strongest 
defense  she  had  received  up  to  that  time — an 
apology  of  tremendous  power  and  effectiveness. 
Then  his  little  book  "To  Scapula,"  proconsul  of 
Africa,  is  one  of  the  noblest  pleas  for  toleration  ever 
made.  In  variety,  strength,  and  volume  of  literary 
output  he  far  exceeds  Cyprian,  and  he  always  main- 
tained a  more  genuinely  Christian  attitude.  It  is 
true  that,  disgusted  with  the  worldliness  of  the 
Church,  he  later  became  a  Montanist,  and  on  ac- 
count of  this  divergence  from  the  so-called  Catholic 
Church,  which  he  criticised  with  relentless  severity, 
the  later  Church  omitted  him  from  her  roll  of  saints. 
Cyprian  fed  his  soul  on  him.     Some  of  his  books 


10  But  see  J.  B.  Mayor  in  The  Expositor,  July,  1902. 


Cart  hack  and  thi;  Church.  15 

are  but  the  echoes  of  Tertullian.  "Hand  me  the 
Master'1  (Da  Magisfrum),  he  would  say  to  bis 
retary  when  asking  for  the  rolls  of  Tertullian.11 
He  said  truly.  Of  all  the  Christian  men  who  lived 
in  the  dying  \ears  of  that  fateful  second  century, 
Tertullian  was  the  master. 

I  have  already  mentioned  the  large  number  of 
bishops  in  the  African  provinces.  At  a  council, 
A.  D.  240,  ninety  were  present.  That  means  a 
widely  diffused  episcopal  organization,  but  no  dioc- 
esan organization.  In  other  wrords,  every  little 
town  had  its  bishop, — and  entirely  distinct  from 
presbyter,  be  it  remembered.  Of  detached  presby- 
ters and  deacons  we  hear  nothing.  Harnack  says 
that  the  episcopal  organization  in  Africa  was  formed 
on  the  model  of  the  municipal  organization  there, 
which  itself  was  derived  from  the  Phoenicians.  He 
quotes  Mommsen  to  the  effect  that  when  Roman 
rule  began  in  Africa,  the  Carthaginian  country  at 
that  time  consisted  essentially  of  small  city  societies, 
administered  by  their  sufTetes,  of  which  small  city 
organizations  there  were  about  300,  and  that  Rome 
allowed  that  arrangement  to  stand.1-  And  on  that 
old  Punic  civic  platform  the  Church  imposed  her 
already  developed  episcopate. 

II  Jerome,  I  >e  Vlr.   I:'  . 

12  Harnack,  Ibid.  516,  note  5.     Mommsen,  Rom.  Gcsch.  V,  644. 


16  Cyprian  :  The:  Churchman. 

What  circumstances  contributed  to  make  Chris- 
tianity so  strong  in  Africa  we  do  not  know.  It  may 
be  because  such  powerful  personalities  as  Tertul- 
lian  and  Cyprian  were  given  to  the  Church.  For  a 
hundred  years  Carthage  was  the  cynosure  of  all 
eyes.  Cyprian  stood  forth  like  the  governor  of  a 
province.  In  the  middle  years  of  the  third  cen- 
tury he  and  not  the  Roman  bishop  was  pre-emi- 
nently the  pope.  Under  him  the  number  of  con- 
verts among  the  heathen  were  greatly  increased. 
"The  new  crowd  of  believers,"  he  calls  them.13 
Strong  men  are  as  necessary  to  impress  heathens 
to-day  as  then.  Piety  is  indispensable  to  a  mission- 
ary, but  it  will  not  make  up  for  brain  power  and 
learning.  So  Carthage  was  the  central  city  of 
Christianity  in  the  middle  of  the  third  century,  and 
this  was  largely  due  to  Cyprian.  He  corresponded 
with  bishops  in  Rome,  Spain,  Gaul,  Cappadocia; 
he  looked  to  it  that  his  letters  on  the  lapsed  should 
come  to  the  notice  of  all  the  Church,14  and  he  ruled 
the  Church  of  North  Africa  from  Syrtis  to  Maure- 
tania.15  And  what  that  Church  was  is  brought  home 
to  us  by  the  estimate  of  Harnack  that  in  procon- 
sular Africa  and  near-by  provinces  there  were  about 
150  bishops.16    What  if  as  strong  men  as  Cyprian 

13  Ep.  66  (68),  5.    14  Ibid.  55  (51),  5.    16  Harnack,  517,  note  2.    16  Ibid.  519. 


Carthage  and  tih:  Church.  17 

had    succeeded    t<>    the    Carthaginian    bishopric! 

Would  Rome  have  won  her  supremacy  so  easil)  ? 
And  what  if  Vandal  and  Mohammed  had  not 
decimated   the  African   Church!      Might  there   not 

have  been  one  large  section  of  Christendom  outside 

of  the  Roman  "sphere  of  influence?" 


CHAPTER  II. 

CONVERSION. 

Thascius  Cyprian  was  born  we  know  not  when 
nor  where,  but  probably  near  Carthage  in  the  early 
years  of  the  third  century.  His  parents  were  rich, 
and  for  a  child  of  pagan  parents  only  two  pro- 
fessions lay  open — arms  or  law,  this  latter  including 
rhetoric.  Like  Tertullian  he  chose  law,  and  in 
Carthage  attained  high  standing  in  it.  "He  gained 
great  glory  to  himself,"  says  Lactantius,  "by  the 
profession  of  the  art  of  oratory."1  The  lawyer  and 
rhetorician  of  ancient  times  was  supposed  to  be  a 
master  of  all  the  sciences  that  then  were.  He  had 
not  only  to  know  what  to  speak,  but  how  to  speak 
and  to  act,  to  be  a  master  of  grace  as  well  as  of 
reason.  He  had  not  only  to  be  a  man  of  learning, 
but  to  have  his  learning  and  every  other  accom- 
plishment in  readiness  for  the  persuasion  and  con- 
vincing of  men.  The  average  modern  lawyer  would 
shine  poorly  by  the  side  of  the  wide  and  persevering 
culture  of  the  ancient  advocate.     At  thirty  Cicero 


1  Div.  Inst.  V.  i. 

18 


Conversion.  19 

was  still  under  the  tuition  of  Molon.  How  per- 
sistent they  were  in  technical  perfection.2  A  rhetori- 
cian of  Cyprian's  time  was  so  highly  honored  that 
his  daughter  was  espoused  to  the  Emperor  Gordian. 
Is  it  any  wonder  that  when  such  men  as  Minucius 
Felix  and  Tertullian  and  Cyprian  were  converted, 
they  exercised  immense  influence  on  the  higher 
classes? 

Africa  was  the  special  "nurse  of  pleaders,"  re- 
minding Archbishop  Benson  of  the  fervor  and  elo- 
quence with  which  Ireland  has  "enriched  the  Eng- 
lish bar."  Not  the  least  of  them  was  Cyprian.  He 
had  pursued  the  highest  culture  of  his  time.  "What 
gold,  what  silver,  what  raiment,"  exclaims  Augus- 
tine, "he  brought  with  him  out  of  Egypt!"  When 
Jerome  wants  to  illustrate  the  greatest  power  of 
Christianity,  viz.,  that  of  converting  men  of  learn- 
ing and  culture,  men  "who  are  the  last  of  all  to 
learn  the  word,  yet  at  length,  like  the  Xinevites 
descend  from  their  thrones  to  plebeian  levels,  lay 
aside  the  radiance  of  their  eloquence,  put  away  the 
intoxicating  draught  of  words,  and  thenceforth  con- 
tent themselves  with  the  majesty  of  Christian 
thoughts,"  he  selects  Cyprian  as  an  example.3  It 
was  indeed  a  trophy  for  Christianity. 


2  Aug.  Chr.  Doc.  bk.  4.  3  Comm.  in  Jon.  c.  3. 


20  Cyprian:  The  Churchman. 

What  about  the  circumstances  of  Cyprian's  con- 
version ?  Alas !  here  we  know  almost  next  to  noth- 
ing. But  a  careful  study  of  Pontius's  "Life  of 
Cyprian"  (Pontius  was  his  deacon  and  friend)  and 
of  Cyprian's  own  letter  to  Donatus  throws  a  little 
light.  Pontius  refers  his  conversion  to  the  influence 
of  Caecilius,  a  presbyter,  whose  name  he  took  in 
baptism,  as  Neander  did  the  names  of  his  friends. 
"He  had  close  association  among  us  with  a  just 
man  of  praiseworthy  memory,  by  name  Caecilius,* 
in  age  as  well  as  in  honor  a  presbyter,  who  had 
converted  him  from  his  worldly  errors  to  the  ac- 
knowledgment of  the  true  divinity.  This  man  he 
loved  with  entire  honor  and  all  observance,  regard- 
ing him  with  an  obedient  veneration,  not  only  the 
friend  and  comrade  of  his  soul,  but  as  the  parent  of 
his  new  life."5  But  of  this  faithful  soul-winner 
we  know  nothing  more.  He  has  vanished  from  the 
horizon  of  the  Church,  just  as  many  another  worker 
has  done  after  bringing  some  one  to  the  Savior  who 
has  been  a  burning  and  shining  light.  It  was  per- 
sonal service,  personal  friendship,  the  strength  and 
beauty  of  Christian  testimony  of  the  unknown 
Caecilius,  which  gave  us  Cyprian. 

In  the  letter  to  Donatus  there  is  none  of  the 


4  Hartel's  MSS.  have  Caecilianus,  5  Vita  Cyp.  4. 


Conversion.  21 

intimate  personal  heart  history  which  makes  the 
confessions  of  Augustine  so  fascinating  and  so 
famous.  There  are  striking  figures  but  no  clear 
soul-history,  rhetoric  but  not  much  light.  "While 
I  was  still  lying  in  darkness  and  gloomy  night,  wav- 
ering hither  and  thither,  tossed  about  on  the  foam 
of  this  boastful  age,  uncertain  of  my  wandering 
steps,  knowing  nothing  of  my  real  life,  and  remote 
from  truth  and  light,  I  used  to  regard  it  as  a  diffi- 
cult matter  that  a  man  should  be  born  again,  a 
truth  which  the  Divine  Mercy  had  announced  for 
my  salvation,  and  that  a  man  quickened  to  a  new 
life  in  the  laver  of  saving  water  should  be  able  to 
put  off  what  he  had  formerly  been,  and,  although 
retaining  his  bodily  stature,  should  be  himself 
changed  in  heart  and  soul."0  This  shows  that  he 
became  convicted  of  sin,  so  that  his  old  life  ap- 
peared in  its  right  colors;  and  it  shows  also  that 
he  had  often  thought  of  Christianity  and  of  its  doc- 
trine of  the  new  birth.  lie  then  goes  on  to  say  that 
he  came  to  acquiesce  in  a  sinful  life  as  inevitable, 
indulge  his  evil  habits  as  "actual  parts  of  me,"  until 
finally  by  the  "help  of  the  water  of  the  new  birth, 
the  stain  of  former  gins  had  been  wiped  away,  and 
the  light  from  above  serene  and  pure  had  been  in- 


C  Ad.  Donat.  3  (Ep.  1). 


22  Cyprian:  The:  Churchman. 

fused  into  my  reconciled  heart,  after  that  by  the 
agency  of  the  Spirit  breathed  from  heaven  a  second 
birth  had  restored  me  to  a  new  man ;  then  in  a  won- 
drous manner  doubtful  things  at  once  began  to  as- 
sure themselves  to  me,  hidden  things  to  be  re- 
vealed, dark  things  to  be  enlightened,  so  that  I  was 
able  to  acknowledge  that  what  previously  being 
born  of  the  flesh  had  been  living  in  the  practice 
of  sins,  was  of  the  earth  earthy,  but  had  now  be- 
gun to  be  glad,  and  was  anointed  by  the  spirit  of 
holiness."7 

By  the  instructions  and  example  of  Csecilius  he 
had  gradually  come  to  a  knowledge  of  himself,  and 
to  a  desire  to  become  a  Christian,  and  apparently  at 
or  after  baptism  his  faith  laid  hold  on  Christ,  and 
he  was  transformed  into  a  new  creature  in  Him. 

It  is  evident  also  by  the  epistle  of  Donatus  that 
another  element  contributed  to  his  conversion,  viz., 
the  comparative  purity  of  the  morals  of  Christians. 
His  association  with  Csecilius  and  his  observation 
of  other  Christians,  was  making  hideous  to 
him  by  contrast  the  pagan  civilization  in  which 
he  had  been  brought  up,  revealing  it  in 
all  its  cruelty,  rottenness,  and  shame.  For 
in   this    letter,    a   kind    of   confession,    a   kind    of 


7  Ad.  Donat.  4  (Ep.  1) 


Conversion.  23 

justification  and  explanation  of  his  change,  he  de- 
votes the  chief  space  to  a  frank  description  of  the 
heathenism  he  had  left.  "I  will  draw  away  the  veil 
from  the  darkness  of  this  hidden  world."  And  he 
gives  a  picture  of  it  as  he  knew  it,  and  he  knew  it, 
this  cultured  wealthy  lawyer  of  the  great  city.  It 
is  a  picture  that  can  well  be  commended  to  the  ad- 
mirers of  pagan  ethics  and  art,  who  think  we  could 
well  exchange  Christianity  for  Greek  philosophy. 
There  is  no  doubt  that  on  the  part  of  many  Chris- 
tians there  was  a  sad  lack,  as  we  shall  see,  in  show- 
ing forth  the  moral  beauty  of  their  religion,  but  at 
the  worst  the  latter  was  so  infinitely  superior  to 
paganism  to  the  keen  eyes  of  this  observant  and 
practiced  lawyer,  that  he  was  unconsciously  and 
irresistibly  drawn  towards  it. 

After  these  descriptions  he  pictures  a  soul  freed 
from  this  bondage.  Withdrawn  from  the  eddies  of 
a  distracting  world,  he  lifts  his  eyes  to  heaven;  and, 
having  been  admitted  to  the  gift  of  God,  he  can 
boast  that  whatever  in  human  affairs  seem  lofty 
and  proud,  lies  beneath  his  care.  He  who  is  greater 
than  the  world  can  desire  nothing  from  the  world. 
There  he  is  free,  stable,  fitted  fur  the  light  of  im- 
mortality. This  new  power  and  dignity  is  a  gift 
from  God,  and  it  is  accessible  to  all.     "As  the  sun 


24  Cyprian:  Th£  Churchman. 

shines  spontaneously,  as  the  day  gives  light,  as  the 
fountain  flows,  as  the  shower  yields  moisture,  so 
does  the  heavenly  spirit  infuse  itself  into  us.  When 
the  soul  in  its  gaze  into  heaven  has  recognized  its 
author,  it  rises  higher  than  the  sun,  and  far  tran- 
scends all  this  earthly  power,  and  begins  to  be  what 
it  believes  itself  to  be."8  Gold  ceilings  and  mosaic 
marbles  will  seem  mean  to  one  who  knows  that  it 
is  himself  who  is  to  be  perfected,  is  to  be  adorned, 
and  that  the  all-important  temple  is  the  temple  of 
the  soul  in  which  the  Holy  Spirit  has  begun  to  make 
His  abode.  All  other  beauty  shall  perish  but  this 
remains,  "perpetual,  vivid,  in  perfect  honor,  in  per- 
manent splendor."9 

Cyprian's  conversion  was  radical  from  the  start. 
In  this  respect  it  was  like  that  of  the  early  Meth- 
odists. He  abode  in  no  half-way  house,  partly 
Christian,  partly  pagan.  He  was  now  Christ's,  and 
he  served  Him  henceforth  according  to  his  light 
with  undeviating  loyalty.  The  Christianity  to  which 
he  was  converted  was  not  entirely  that  of  Paul — 
200  years  lay  between;  it  was  the  semi-Scriptural, 
semi-Catholic  Christianity  of  A.  D.  250,  various 
traits  of  which  we  shall  see  as  we  go  forward.  But 
such  as  it  was,  Cyprian  accepted  it  with  intelligent 

8  Ad.  Donat.  14  (Ep.  1).    '  9  Ibid.  15. 


Conversion.  25 

and  unselfish  devotion  from  which  he  never  swerved 
for  a  moment.  To  show  and  test  his  genuineness  this 
rich  rhetorician  sold  the  most  of  his  possessions  and 
gave  to  the  Church  for  distribution  to  the  poor, 
sick,  and  other  stricken  classes.  His  house  in 
Carthage,  however,  was  bought  back  by  the  Church 
and  given  to  him  again.  He  entered  upon  a  life  of 
fasting,  prayer,  and  especially  of  the  diligent  study 
of  the  Holy  Scriptures,  of  which  his  writings  re- 
veal large  and  exact  acquaintance,  not  neglecting 
the  Church  teachers  before  him,  and  especially  his 
beloved  Tertullian. 

The  year  of  his  baptism  we  do  not  know  exactly 
—probably  about  245  or  246.  But  the  day  on  which 
the  Carthaginian  Roman  lawyer,  Thascius  Cyprian, 
went  under  what  he  calls  the  "birth-giving  water" 
—probably  on  the  beach  of  his  own  beautiful  bay — 
was  one  of  the  most  important  days  in  the  history 
of  men.  In  him  the  Catholic  era  became  crystal- 
lized in  forms  one  sees  in  almost  every  church  one 
pas.- 


1     CHAPTER  III. 

CYPRIAN'S  JUDGMENT  OF  HEATH- 
ENISM. 

It  is  hardly  conceivable  that  so  thoughtful  and 
well-read  a  man  as  Cyprian  could  have  had  much 
heart  in  his  paganism.  He  must  have  been  like 
many  in  that  Grseco-Roman  world — externally  at- 
tached to  the  faith  of  the  State,  but  with  no  love 
for  it,  no  interior  drawing.  As  soon  as  he  is  con- 
verted and  has  to  justify  his  new  attitude,  he  turns 
against  the  religious  life  of  heathenism  with  an 
earnestness  and  intelligence  and  moral  revulsion 
which  show  that  the  old  religion  came  to  him  but 
found  nothing  in  him. 

Like  others  of  the  fathers,  Cyprian  believed  the 
gods  were  demons  who  had  gotten  men  in  their 
possession  and  persuaded  them  to  worship  them  in- 
stead of  God.  These  demons  were  themselves  cast 
out  by  Christians,  which  is  a  sure  proof  to  him  of 
their  frailty  and  contemptibleness.  He  challenges 
the  heathen:  O,  would  you  but  see  them  and  hear 

26 


C'\  ruiA.v's  Judgment  of  Heathenism.      27 

them  (the  demons)  when  they  are  adjured  by  us, 
and  tortured  with  spiritual  scourges,  and  are  ejected 
from  possessed  bodies,  when,  howling1  and  groaning 
at  the  voice  of  man  and  the  power  of  God,  they 
confess  the  judgment  to  come.  These  demons 
(gods)  are  subject  to  Christians!  And  yet  you 
worship  them.  You  will  see  that  we  are  entreated 
by  those  whom  you  entreat,  that  we  are  feared  by 
those  whom  you  fear,  whom  you  adore.  You  will 
see  that  under  our  hands  they  stand  bound  and 
tremble  as  captives,  whom  you  look  up  to  and  ven- 
erate as  gods.  Can  you  not  be  convinced  as  to 
what  kind  of  gods  you  worship  when  you  see  and 
hear  them  upon  our  interrogation  betraying  what 
they  are,  and  even  in  your  presence  unable  to  con- 
ceal those  deceits  and  trickeries  of  theirs  P1 

The  casting  out  of  demons  was  a  large  function 
in  the  early  Church.  Some  have  seen  in  this  an  evi- 
dence of  the  credulity  and  childishness  of  the  times. 
But  as  to  the  reality  of  the  phenomena,  the  reality 
of  the  cures,  there  can  be  no  doubt.  The  question 
is  as  to  their  interpretation.  The  true  view  is  that 
in  certain  ages  of  civilization,  and  in  certain  stages 
of  moral  lapse,  evil  spirit  or  spirits  really  take  pos- 
session in  some  sense  of  the  person,  and  according 


1  Ad  Dcmetrianum,  15. 


:5  J.  .-".man. 

to  the  laws  of  the  soul  work  ther  his  physical, 

r.:z-~.i-.  mi  ::::..  ri'zzz.     A  :s  :.;:  r:;re  irrmmA 
to  befiere  in  die  existence  c:  pirits  than  in 

Am  A  mm  srmm  :r  even  Am  ;:  mi  :::er..     Am 
if  they  exist,  it  is  according  to  the  laws  of  psychol- 

g]    iiat  ther  may  obtain  control  of  human  s 
"   Am      :>  seer,  in  :he  emi;    Ar.vmh  is  f-::  ::-i.v 
in  some  countries.2    In  this  realm  of  evil  possession 
the  Church  wrought  mighty  victories  for  sanity  and 
"emm   : .'  ms   25   mm"  tr. 

The  author  of  "Quod  idola  dii  non  That 

Idols    are    not    Gods),    generally    attributed    to 

rian,  has  another  philosophy  of  the  gods.     He 

.hat  the  gods  were  formerly  k    g        ho  as  soon 

ey  died  began  to  be  adored  by  their  people. 

H:::::  :emAes  ~ere  Ammei  ::  mem  irmms  ~mie 

to  them,  sacrifice  paid  and  festal  days  appointed. 

5:  h   :  :mm     tihest  1  :es  became  sacred  which  at 

.  ■:'.  ii:zzzL  25  :-.  :ms mm      He;:  :ves 

the  stories  of  the  works  of  these  gods  on 

A;:'.::    :e:    Ae    mem    ::   AAmems. 

:   m  A m  A:   -  vA?  ::r  _Am-.ei:n   Ae  :me  ::  "v.;  - 

:er  .;  seer,  in  me;e    mi  2:5  ser  Amer  is  sir: -.t.  :  e:: 


- 

T     --t.     '•";       V.-i         ._  -    1.  - :  :    .::   i     :     ; 


JUDGMCVT  OF  Hi  :  . 

When  it  is  said  that  to  these  gods  Rome  owes 
its  gr  the  writer  replies  that  that  is  due  sim- 

ply to  the  udes  and  chances  of  fortune.    But 

Rome  has  no  real  moral  greatness,  and  never  had. 
A  lot  of  criminals  and  profligates  come  together, 
found  an  asylum,  by  impunity  for  crimes  made 
their  number  great  Romulus  himself  was  a  frat- 
ricide. When  they  want  marriage  they-  begin  that 
"affair  of  concord  by  discords."  They  steal,  they 
do  violer.  —  ng  to  get  people. 

Their  marriage  consists  of  broken  covenants  of 
hospitality  and  cruel  wars  with  their  fathers-in- 
Brutus  puts  his  sons  to  death  that  the  com- 
mendation of  his  dignity  may  increase  bv  the  ap- 
proval of  his  wickedness.*  How  did  this  plain 
speaking  strike  the  haughty  Roman? 

But  this  author  gets  round  to  the  demon  the 
The}-  are  impure  and  wandering  spirits,  who  after 
having  been   steeped  in  wor  .5,  lost  their 

celestial  rigor  by  the  contagion  of  earth,  and  now, 
ruined  themselves,  seek  to  ruin  others.  Even  poets 
acknowledge  the  existence  of  demons,  and  Socrates 
said  he  was  instructed  by  one.  From  them  magi 
have  power  for  mischief  or  for  mockery,  though 
of  them,  Hostanes,  said  that  the  form  of 


30  Cyprian:  The:  Churchman. 

the  true  God  can  not  be  seen,  and  that  true  angels 
stand  around  His  throne.  Plato  believed  this  also, 
maintaining  one  God,  the  rest  angels  or  demons. 
Hermes  Trismegistus  believed,  too,  in  one  God  in- 
comprehensible, beyond  our  ken.5 

As  to  the  moral  content  of  paganism  Cyprian 
did  not  mince  his  words.  Nor  was  he  haranguing  a 
crowd  or  advocating  a  cause  before  a  jury,  when 
he  might  be  tempted,  like  our  political  orator,  to 
exaggerate;  but  he  is  giving  his  sober  thoughts  to 
a  friend  who  could  not  be  deceived.  Both  knew 
their  world.  Cyprian,  at  least,  we  may  assume, 
knew  it  thoroughly.  And  he  finds  nothing  to  re- 
gret for  having  left  it:  the  roads  blocked  up  with 
robbers,  seas  beset  with  pirates,  wars  everywhere. 
The  world  is  wet  with  mutual  blood  and  murder, 
which  for  an  individual  is  called  a  crime,  is  called 
a  virtue  when  it  is  committed  wholesale.6  Was  there 
ever  a  finer  description  of  most  wars  than  that? 
The  quickened  conscience  of  the  early  Christians 


5  Quod  Idola,  6.  Though  scholars  are  now  generally  agreed  that  the 
Quod  Idola  dii  non  sint  is  not  the  work  of  Cyprian  (see  Haussleiter, 
Cypr.  Studien.  Comment.  Woefflin,  Leipz.  1891,  379(1,  Ehrhard,  Die  alt- 
christliche  Literatur  und  ihre  Erforschung,  Freib.  i.  B,  1900,  462),  yet  it  is 
undeniable  that  its  thought  moves  in  the  Cyprianic  circle.  It  is  a  compila- 
tion from  Minucius  Felix,  Tertullian,  and  Cyprian.  As  the  latter  borrowed 
wholesale  from  the  others,  one  may  fairly  take  the  Quod  Idola  as  repre- 
senting Cyprian  also. 

6  Ad  Donatum,  6. 


Cyprian  s  Judgment  oi<  Heathenism.       31 

detested  war,  but  they  did  not  detest  it  more  than 
it  deserved. 

He  then  turns  his  attention  to  that  beloved  in- 
stitution of  paganism — the  gladiatorial  shows.  Men 
who  have  committed  no  crime  are  fattened  for  this 
slaughter.  "Man  is  slaughtered  that  man  may  be 
gratified  and  the  skill  that  is  best  able  to  kill  is  an 
exercise  of  an  art.  Men  train  to  murder.  Men  of 
ripe  age  and  beautiful  person  offer  themselves  for 
this  horrible  combat.  Think  of  it !  Fathers  look 
down  on  their  sons;  a  brother  is  in  the  arena  and 
his  sister  hard  by.  The  increased  pomp  of  the  show 
makes  the  tickets  higher,  yet  even  the  mother  will 
pay  the  increased  price  to  witness  her  child's  death- 
wound  on  a  gala-day.  Yet  with  all  these  frightful 
scenes  they  are  not  at  all  conscious  that  they  are 
parricides  with  their  eyes."7  And  it  needed  the  in- 
troduction of  Christianity  to  distinguish  between 
murder,  torture,  a  thousand  deaths  and — sport! 

As  to  the  theater,  though  it  does  not  take  life 
like  the  gladiatorial  shows,  it  kills  virtue — and  it 
must  be  confessed  that,  though  it  has  changed  for 
the  better  under  Christianity,  it  is  still  sufficiently 
true  to  its  reputation  in  Cyprian's  time.  Parricide 
and  incest  are  unfolded  in  action,  so  that  as  the  ages 


7  Ad  Donatum,   7. 


32  Cyprian:  Th£  Churchman. 

pass,  old  crimes  may  not  be  forgotten.  On  the 
stage  the  old  wickedness  and  impiety  still  live  on. 
By  the  teaching  of  infamies  in  the  mimes  the  specta- 
tor is  reminded  of  what  he  may  have  done  or  may 
yet  do.  Adultery  is  learnt  while  it  is  seen;  and 
having  public  authority  this  mischief  panders  to 
vices  and  works  havoc  among  modest  women.  Be- 
sides "what  a  degradation  of  morals,  what  a  stimu- 
lus to  abominable  deeds,  what  a  food  for  vice,  to  be 
polluted  by  stage  gestures,  and  against  the  covenant 
and  law  of  one's  birth  to  gaze  in  detail  upon  in- 
cestuous abominations."  They  show  Venus  im- 
modest, Mars  adulterous,  and  that  Jupiter  of  theirs 
not  more  supreme  in  dominion  than  in  vice,  etc. 
And  now  put  the  question,  says  Cyprian:  Can  he 
who  looks  upon  such  things  be  healthy-minded  or 
modest?  Men  immitate  the  god  they  adore, — their 
crimes  become  their  religion.8 

This  Zola-like  painter  of  a  world  he  knew  so 
well  then  refers  to  that  vice9  which  ancient  litera- 
ture reveals  as  frightfully  common, — impossible  to 
believe  as  our  feelings  make  it.  Is  it  possible  that 
paganism,  glorified  by  our  freethinkers,  had  first  to 
hear  from  the  new  despised  faith  protests  against 
the  unnatural   diabolical  lusts  which  its  best  men 


Ad  Donatum,  8.  9  Rom.  i,  26,  27. 


Cyprian's  JUDGMENT  0*  I  1i;atiu;\ism.        33 

looked  Upon  as  a  matter  of  course?  But  in  Cyprian's 
day  it  would  seem  that  the  higher  morality  of  Chri>- 
tianity  was  bringing  some  of  the  guilty  to  conscious- 
ness at  least.  He  speaks  of  these  accusing  others 
in  order  to  escape  their  own  condemnation, — ac- 
cusers in  public  criminals  in  private;  people  im- 
bruted  with  the  madness  of  vice  deny  what  they 
have  done,  and  yet  hasten  to  do.10 

The  sacred  seat  of  law  itself  is  defileck  Wick- 
edness is  done  in  the  very  face  of  the  statutesXand 
the  Forum  echoes  with  the  madness  of  strife.  Then 
the  punishments — the  claw  that  tears,  the  rack  that 
stretches,  the  fire  that  burns — and  of  these  the  poor 
Christians  had  knowledge.  Who  is  to  help?  The 
patron?  He  deceives.  The  Judge?  He  sells  his 
sentence.  The  very  judge  becomes  the  culprit  that 
the  innocent  may  perish.  Crimes  are  even  where. 
One  man  forges  a  will,  another  makes  a  false  oath ; 
children  are  robbed  of  their  inheritances ;  on  all 
sides  the  "venal  impudence  of  hired  voices  falsifies 
the  charges,  while  the  guilty  do  n<'t  even  perish 
with  the  innocent.  There  18  no  fear  about  the  laws  ; 
no  concern  for  either  inquisitor  or  judge;  when  the 
sentence  can  be  bought  off  for  money,  it  is  not  cared 
for."11     We  often  hear  about  the  majesty  of  Roman 

10  Ad  Donatum,  .,.  11  Ibid.  10. 

3 


34  Cyprian:  The  Churchman. 

law,  the  respect  for  justice,  and  all  that,  and  there 
was  a  time  and  a  season  in  which  these  things  were 
realities;  but  the  relentless  pen  of  Rome's  own 
lawyers  uncovered  the  rottenness  of  an  age  and  a 
civilization  which  our  easy-going  pagan  idealists 
hold  up  for  admiration. 

In  another  place,  speaking  of  plagues,  Cyprian 
says  that  they  only  give  opportunity  for  avarice  and 
rapine.  In  these  times  people  do  not  show  affection, 
but  are  rash  in  quest  of  impious  gains.  They  shun 
the  deaths  of  the  dying,  but  crave  the  spoils  of  the 
dead,  so  that  it  looks  as  if  the  wretched  were  for- 
saken in  their  sickness,  lest  being  cared  for  they 
might  recover.  Everywhere  there  is  seizing,  every- 
where taking  possession — no  dissimulation  about 
spoiling,  no  delay.  Thieves  conceal  themselves  in 
ravines  and  rob  under  cover  of  darkness.  Avarice 
rages  openly,  exposes  its  weapons  in  the  market- 
place. "Thence  cheats,  thence  poisoners,  thence  as- 
sassins in  the  midst  of  the  city, — these  are  eager  for 
wickedness  as  they  are  wicked  with  impunity." 
Judges  are  for  sale.  It  might  appear  from  such 
books  as  Steffens's  "Shame  of  the  Cities"  (New 
York,  1904),  that  corruption  could  not  well  be  more 
appalling  in  the  Roman  Empire  than  in  some  of  the 
cities  of  our  Christian  America,  and  especially  in 


Cyprian's  Judgment  o*  Heathenism.      35 

Philadelphia,  which,  under  the  Quay  ring  and  its 
successor,  seems  to  bear  the  palm  for  political  and 
financial  and  other  debauchery.  But  as  a  matter  of 
fact,  such  towns  are  as  the  isles  of  Araby  the  Blest 
by  the  side  of  conditions  revealed  to  us  in  both  the 
pagan  and  Christian  literature  of  ancient  times. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

A  POPE. 

One:  of  the  first  books  written  by  Cyprian  after 
his  conversion  was  his  "Testimonies  Against  the 
Jews,"  though  it  was  not  written  till  he  had  sat- 
urated himself  through  and  through  with  the  Scrip- 
tures. His  method  is  simple.  After  the  manner  of 
a  lawyer  he  presents  his  case  in  a  series  of  brief 
numbered  propositions,  and  then  takes  each  thesis 
in  order  and  proves  it  simply  by  quotations  from 
both  Old  and  New  Testaments,  especially  the  Old. 
His  book  is  dedicated  to  a  young  Christian  friend, 
Quirinus,  to  whom  he  says  that  if  he  wants  strength 
and  intelligence,  he  must  "examine  more  fully  the 
Scriptures,  old  and  new,  and  read  through  the  com- 
plete volume  of  the  spiritual  books."  All  patristic 
literature  is  evidence  of  the  loyal  and  hearty  atti- 
tude of  the  Christians  to  the  Bible,  undeterred  by 
the  fear  least  some  would  read  it  too  much  or  be 
misled  by  their  own  interpretations.  Cyprian  calls 
the  Scriptures  the  "spring  of  the  divine  fullness," 

36 


A  Pope:.  37 

and  he  urges  Quirinus  "to  drink  more  plentifully 
and  be  more  abundantly  satisfied."1 

The  propositions  concerning  the  Jews  which 
he  seeks  to  prove  are  such  as  these :  that  they  have 
fallen  under  the  wrath  of  God  because  they  have 
left  Him  for  idols ;  because  they  slew  the  prophets ; 
that  they  do  not  understand  their  Scriptures  and 
never  will  until  they  believe  on  Christ ;  that  it  was 
foretold  that  they  would  lose  their  land,  that  their 
old  law.  would  cease,  that  a  new  one  would  come, 
that  a  new  prophet  would  arise,  that  Gentiles  would 
receive  the  Christ,  that  they  would  take  the  place 
of  the  Jews  in  the  Divine  favor,  but  that  the  Jews 
can  still  be  saved  if  they  with  baptism  wash  away 
the  blood  of  Christ  slain,  and  passing  over  into  the 
Church  obey  His  precepts.  These  and  other  proposi- 
tions are  thus  proved  in  order  simply  by  quotations 
from  the  Scriptures. 

The  second  book  is  taken  up  with  propositions 
concerning  Christ,  which  show  that  Cyprian  would 
have  been  a  stanch  supporter  of  Athanasius.  Christ 
is  the  First-born,  the  Wisdom  of  God,  the  Word  of 
Gqd,  is  God,  was  incarnated  in  our  race,  born  of  a 
virgin,  Man  and  God,  Son  of  man  and  Son  of  God ; 
that  in  the  passion  and  sign  of  the  cross  is  all  virtue 

1  Test.  adv.  Jud.,  Introd. 


38  Cyprian:  The  Churchman. 

and  power ;  that  it  is  impossible  to  attain  to  God  the 
Father  except  through  Christ  the  Son,  and  the  latter 
is  to  come  as  Judge,  and  is  to  reign  as  King  forever. 
The  last  book  is  a  series  of  miscellaneous  proposi- 
tions in  religion  and  morals  proved  in  the  same  way. 
The  only  apocryphal  book  quoted  is  Ecclesiasticus. 
His  use  of  Scripture  is  of  course  entirely  arbitrary ; 
and  though  he  often  hits  upon  apposite  and  telling 
passages  to  prove  his  points,  he  shows  no  scientific 
principles  of  interpretation,  and  seizes  upon  Old 
Testament  passages  helter-skelter  as  though  they 
wrere  all  equally  literal  and  equally  applicable  to  the 
Christian  religion  and  to  present  circumstances. 

A  prominent  rhetorician,  who  upon  his  conver- 
sion sold  his  estate  and  devoted  himself  to  sacred 
studies,  showed  immediately  that  he  was  called  to 
the  ministry.  He  was  therefore  made  deacon  im- 
mediately, in  247  was  made  presbyter,  and  in  248 
bishop.  He  went  through  the  two  first  years  so 
quickly  and  so  soon  made  a  bishop  that  we  have 
hardly  any  account  of  his  activity  in  the  last  sta- 
tions. What  was  a  bishop  about  250,  and  how  was 
he  elected? 

The  laity  were  the  commons  or  plebs,  the  clergy, 
the  ordo,  that  is,  the  senatorial  order  of  the  Church.2 


See  Benson,  19,  who  has  correctly  represented  the  facts  here. 


A   PoiT..  39 

Both  had  distinctive  rights,  for  both  belonged  to  the 
flock  oi  Christ  The  laity  had  privileges  of  which 
they  have  long-  since  been  robbed  by  the  hierarch- 
ical Church.  As  the  senators  in  court  and  in  basil- 
ica had  the  common  bench  (consessus),  so  had  the 
clergy  in  the  congregation.  Did  this  difference  be- 
tween commons  (laity)  and  senators  (orders,  or 
clergy)  rest  upon  a  divine  anointing  of  the  latter 
which  set  them  apart  as  in  essence  a  separate  caste 
through  whom  alone  the  life  of  God  could  come  to 
men?  Were  they  the  indispensable  means  of  com- 
municating grace  on  account  of  a  sacred  function 
which  they  shared  among  themselves  solitary  and 
incommunicable?  Or  was  their  place  rather  that 
of  custom  and  use,  for  good  order  and  decency  of 
administration,  by  the  ordinance  of  the  Church, 
divine  (of  course)  in  a  sense,  but  not  as  excluding 
laymen  from  the  same  grace  and  functions  if  neces- 
sity should  arise?  Was  the  source  of  their  power 
God  acting  solely  through  clerical  officers,  or  God 
acting  through  the  whole  Church? 

The  "Master"  Tertullian  did  not  answer  th 
questions  in  the  present  "Catholic"  sense.    He  re- 
mained true,  at  least  measurably,  to  the  original 
democratic  and  spiritual  conception  of  the  Church. 
"The  authority  of  the  Church,"  he  says,  "makes  the 


$o  Cyprian:  Thk  Churchman. 

difference  between  order  [ordinem,  clergy]  and 
people,  and  honor  [or  office  of  the  clergy]  is  con- 
secrated by  the  common  bench  of  the  order.  Where 
there  is  no  common  bench  [of  the  clergy]  you 
[laymen]  offer  [administer  the  Lord's  Supper],  you 
baptize,  and  you  are  priest  alone  for  yourself. 
For  where  three  are  the  Church  is,  even  if 
they  are  laymen."3  Tertullian  is  always  true  to 
that  conception.  He  does  indeed  except  women 
from  any  ministerial  function,  but  that  is  entirely 
on  account  of  their  sex.4  He  blames  the  heretics 
also  for  inextricably  mixing  up  laity  and  clergy, 
and  observing  no  decent  order,  capriciously  "en- 
joining sacerdotal  offices  on  laymen,"  but  he  is  here 
speaking  of  an  apparently  reckless  disregard  of  all 
order.5  In  his  work  on  baptism  he  also  has  in  mind 
this  observance  of  decent  administration.  He  says 
the  chief  priest,  that  is,  the  bishop,  has  the  right  of 
administering  baptism  if  he  is  present,  after  him 
the  presbyters  and  deacons,  though  not  without  the 
bishop's  authority,  "on  account  of  the  honor  of  the 
Church,  which  being  preserved  peace  is  preserved. 
Beside  these,  laymen  have  the  right,  for  what  is 
equally   received    can  be   equally   given.       Unless 


3  De  Exhort.  Cast.  7.  4  De  Veland.  Virg.  9.  5  De  Praesci 

Haeret.  41. 


A  Poi  41 

bishops  or  priest  or  deacons  be  on  the  spot,  other 

disciples  arc  called  to  the  work."  Tertullian  lavs 
down  the  great  principle  thai  ought  to  be  dear  to 
every  Christian:  The  Word  of  the  Lord  on -Jit  not 
to  be  hidden  by  any,  a  principle  <>n  which  the  early 

Methodists  went,  by  which  they  won  their  triumphs. 
"In  like  manner,  too,  baptism,  which  is  equally  God'fl 
property,  may  be  administered  by  all."8  In  Tertul- 
lian's  mind  all  Christian  men  are  as  really  priests 
as  the  Jewish  priests,  and  so  he  thought  that  all 
Christians,  like  the  Jewish  priests,  were  bound  to 
single  marriages  only.7  The  Levitical  priesthood 
typified  to  Tertullian  not  the  sacerdotal  ordo 
(clergy),  but  the  universal  priesthood  of  Christians. 
"In  his  time,"  says  Benson  well,  "the  substant- 
ive priesthood  of  the  laity  was  an  understood 
reality."-  He  believed  of  course  in  the  official  priest- 
hood of  the  clergy,  and  I  do  not  say  that  he  had 
thought  through  the  doctrine  of  the  ministry  ac- 
cording tO  Christianity.     But  he  came  much  nearer 

to  it  than  Cyprian. 

In  the  twenty-five  years  that  had  elapsed  be- 
tween the  two  great  Carthaginians,  the  Catholic  tide 

had  not  stood  still,  and  Cyprian  was  farther  Up  the 
shore   than    Tertullian.      With    him   the   bishop    was 


6  Dc  Uaptismo,  17.  t  Uc  If  OOOg.  f .  I      [:i.in,    ji 


42  Cyprian:  The  Churchman. 

not  simply  the  representative  of  the  people  in  their 
priestly  capacity,  officially  taking  up  in  himself  their 
priestly  character.  No,  he  is  much  greater.  He 
represents  not  the  people  but  Christ  Himself.  He 
is  the  priest,  not  so  much  episcopas  as  sacerdos. 
The  Jewish  priesthood  typifies  not  the  Christian  na- 
tion of  priests,  but  the  clergy.  The  rights  and  privi- 
leges of  the  old  priesthood  passed  at  the  crucifixion 
to  the  Christian  bishop;  each  congregation  is  the 
"congregation  of  Israel ;"  the  election  of  a  bishop  is 
made  in  accordance  with  the  law  of  Moses ;  the 
presbyters  are  the  Levites,  and  when  they  approach 
the  people  are  to  rise  up,  as  Lev.  xix,  32,  commands. 
The  bishops  are  also  apostles,  they  succeed  in  ordi- 
nation from  the  apostles ;  they  stand  by  divine  crea- 
tion, not  by  historic  or  ecclesiastical  right  alone ; 
the  diaconate  may  be  a  human  institution,  but  not 
the  bishops.  These  are  also  judges.  They  judge 
in  Christ's  stead.  To  dispute  the  bishop's  decision 
is  to  be  a  heretic.  Even  to  keep  the  faith  and  the 
true  worship,  and  yet  invade  the  office  of  bishop  is 
the  sin  of  Korah.  The  Old  Testament  laws  about 
High  Priest  apply  to  bishops  alone.9  "Verily  he 
[the  bishop]   officiates  as  a  priest  in  the  place  of 


9  Ep.  8  (2),  1 ;  67,  1,  4,  9;  65,  2  ;  3  (64),  3  J  66  (68),  4;  59  (54),  5  J  66  (68) 
3  (64)  5  59  (54);  43  (39)- 


A  Fort.  43 

Christ,  because  he  imitates  what  Christ  did,  and 
offers  the  sacrifice  true  and  full  [in  the  Lord's  Sup- 
per] iu  the  Church  to  God  the  "Father."1" 

It  will  not  do  to  say  that  all  this  was  an  air- 
castle,  though  it  was;  so  far  as  resting  Oil  any  real 
basis  in  Scripture  or  in  fact  it  was  as  unsubstantial 
as  last  year's  dreams.  But  to  Cyprian  h  was  the 
most  real  thing  in  the  world.  And  it  was  suffi- 
ciently in  accord  with  the  Catholic  evolution  of  the 
second  and  third  centuries  as — when  supported  by 
Cyprian's  piety,  reputation,  persistence,  and  exege- 
sis (arbitrary,  fantastic,  false  though  it  was) — to 
make  a  profound  impression,  set  the  results  of  that 
evolution  in  permanent  shape,  and  make  his  little 
cycle  in  that  Tunisian  city  the  determining  reckon- 
ing for  all  Christians  and  for  all  time. 

When  Cyprian  came  on  the  scene,  the  bishop 

was  the  head  officer  in  the  local  Church,  there  being 

a  bishop  in  every  town.     Against  him  persecution 

directed;  the  confiscation  of  his  property  was 

sometimes  the  only  edict  of  the  magistrate;  hi 
in  the  center  of  the  row  of  presbyters  or  on  a  chair 
above  them;  he  was  the  chief  preacher;  only  he  ad- 
ministered   communion,    or  in   his  absence  those 
whom  he  commissioned;  baptism  was  also  mainly 


I  '6a),  14. 


44  Cyprian:  The  Churchman. 

confined  to  him;  he  was  judge  in  disputes  and  the 
chief  office,  as  to  disqualifications  for  Church  func- 
tions. Cyprian  added  nothing  to  the  substance  of 
the  bishop's  power,  he  only  placed  it  on  a  religious 
basis.  He  sanctified  it  with  the  halo  of  the  Old 
Testament  law. 

How  was  the  bishop  elected?  The  laity  gave 
Cyprian  to  the  Church.  If  the  filling  the  vacancy 
caused  by  the  death  of  Donatus  had  been  left  to  the 
clergy,  we  would  never  have  heard  of  him.  The 
latter  thought  he  was  immature  in  religious  expe- 
rience, a  novice,  and  so,  according  to  Paul  ( I  Tim. 
iii,  6),  ineligible  for  Church  office.  Cyprian  thought 
so  himself  and  declined,  wishing  an  older  presbyter 
to  be  elected.  But  the  people  were  inexorable.  They 
looked  upon  him  as  the  strongest  and  wisest  min- 
ister in  the  city,  and  they  would  not  be  refused. 
They  surrounded  his  house,  filled  all  approaches, 
cut  off  escape,  and  compelled  him  to  accept.  Ac- 
cording to  Cyprian  there  were  three  or  four  things 
necessary  in  every  election  of  bishop:  the  judgment 
of  God,  the  voice  of  the  people,  the  choice  of  the 
bishops  of  the  province,  and  the  testimony  of  the 
clergy.  But  what  was  the  relation  of  each  of  these 
elements  to  the  other,  the  relative  importance  of 
each  one,  and  how  each  was  expressed,  we  do  not 
know.     He  says  it  is  divine  tradition  and  apostolic 


A  Pope.  45 

observance — it  was  not,  Cyprian  had  no  exact  his- 
torical knowledge — that  "for  the  proper  celebra- 
tions of  ordinations  all  the  neighboring  bishops  of 
the  same  province  shall  assemble  with  that  people 
for  which  a  prelate  is  ordained.  And  the  bish<i]> 
shall  be  chosen  in  the  presence  of  the  people,  who 
have  most  fully  known  the  life  of  each  one,  by  the 
suffrage  of  the  brotherhood  and  by  the  sentence  of 
the  bishops  assembled."11  He  emphasizes  the  suf- 
frage of  the  people,12  and  once  the  testimony  of  his 
colleagues.13  It  does  not  appear  that  the  neighbor- 
ing bishops  gave  any  formal  vote  to  the  election  of 
Cyprian,  nor  that  his  co-presbyters  did,  but  that  the 
one  decisive  factor  was  the  clamant  call  of  the  peo- 
ple. In  other  words  he  was  elected  by  acclamation 
of  the  people,  which  was  confirmed  by  the  later 
assent  of  all  the  presbyters  except  five,  and  by  the 
ordination  of  the  bishops.  According  to  Cyprian, 
the  assembled  bishops  had  the  right  of  election,  with 
the  co-operation  of  the  clergy- ;  but  as  Bohringer 
well  says,  the  election  itself  depended  in  the  last 
instance  upon  the  consent  or  veto  of  the  congrega- 
tion.11 The  laity  had  the  first  and  the  last  and  de- 
cisive voice,  though  probably  did  not  vote  as  in  a 
formal  election.  In  fact,  we  do  not  know  from 
Cyprian's   Epistles  that  any  one  cast  a  vote.     But 

11  Ep  12  so   M  .  5  6-  ■  44 

M  Cyprianui,  in  Die  Kirche  Christi  und  ihre  Zeugen,  a.  Au*g.  IV,  841. 


46  Cyprian:  The  Churchman. 

it  is  striking  that  the  greatest  Churchman  of  the 
third  century  was  really  made  a  bishop  by  laymen, 
that  there  was  still  existing  by  the  side  of  the  grow- 
ing hierarchy  this  instructive  survival  of  original 
Congregationalism.15 

Cyprian  was  the  first  pope,  that  is,  the  first  bishop 
repeatedly  called  papa,  papas,  or  pope,16  and  that 
too,  on  the  part  of  the  Roman  Church.  I  do  not  lay 
stress  on  this,  but  call  attention  to  it  as  showing 
that  the  exclusive  use  of  the  word  by  Rome  since 
the  decree  of  Hildebrand,  1073,  and  the  generally 
exclusive  use  since  the  eighth  century,  is  on  par 
with  most  of  her  usurpations.  Apparently  the  first 
bishop  to  be  so  called  was  Heraclas  of  Alexandria,17 
who  died  about  246,  the  first  Roman  bishop  Marcel- 
linus,  249-304,  and  in  the  fourth  century  bishops  of 
various  sees  large  and  small  are  called  pope.  If 
we  import  the  later  thought  into  the  word,  that  is, 
if  we  think  of  the  pope  as  the  ruling  spirit  in  the 
Church,  the  Roman  presbyters  are  entirely  justified 
in  giving  the  title  to  him  of  Carthage,  because  he 
and  no  other  was  pope  in  the  short  but  troubled 
time  of  his  episcopate.18 

15  For  the  part  of  the  laity  in  the  election  of  bishops,  as  witnessed  by 
Origen,  Eusebius,  etc.,  see  Haddon,  art.  Bishop  in  Diet.  Chr.  Antiq.  i,  214. 

16  Eps.  30 ;  31  (25)  ;  36  (29)  ;  23  (16) ;  8  (2)  ;  at  beginning. 

17  Ens.,  H.  E.  7>  7. 

18  On  the  title  pope  see  Benson,  29-31.  Mullinger,  in  Diet.  Chr.  Ant. 
ii,  1652,  1663-4. 


CHAPTER  V. 

BEFORE  THE  STORM. 

CYPRIAN  became  bishop  probably  in  July,  248, 
and  the  Decian  persecution  began  at  the  end  of 
240,  or  the  beginning  of  250.  The  Church  had  had 
peace  since  the  death  of  Sulpicius  Severus,  Febru- 
ary 4,  211 — almost  forty  years.  What  chance  for 
quiet  growth  and  development,  for  missionary  work, 
for  literary  achievements,  etc.  ?  But  alas !  this  prom- 
ise was  not  kept,  or  only  partially  kept.  The  Church 
grew,  indeed,  but  at  the  expense  of  purity,  and  there 
was  little  of  literary  work  between  Tertullian  and 
Cyprian.  Then  were  laid  the  seeds  of  the  Novatian 
schism.  A  time  of  peace  for  nation  or  Church  im- 
poses special  obligations  of  watchfulness  and  dis- 
cipline and  self-denial,  lest  corruptions  creep  in  and 
the  inheritance  be  lost.  And  in  a  Catholic  Church 
these  Corruptions  are  almost  inevitable.  When  sac- 
raments take  the  place  of  a  transforming  faith  in  a 
personal  Savior,  when  Church  absolution  takes  the 
place   of  divine   forgiveness   and   conversion,   when 

47 


48  Cyprian:  The  Churchman. 

harmony  with  the  bishop  is  practically  substituted 
for  ethical  and  spiritual  harmony  of  the  life  with 
God,  union  with  Christ  interpreted  in  terms  of  union 
with  the  Church,  when  Christianity  is  thus  external- 
ized and  superficialized  as  it  is  in  the  so-called 
Catholic  Churches,  a  series  of  miracles  is  necessary 
to  keep  the  Church  pure.  That  God  will  not  pre- 
vent by  extraordinary  means  what  may  be  avoided 
by  the  simple  paths  of  His  Gospel,  history  is  a  wit- 
ness. Look  at  Russia,  to-day,  whose  battleships  are 
furnished  with  both  icons  and  harlots,  or  in  France 
where  priests  and  mistresses  used  to  jostle  each 
other  in  the  corridors  of  the  Most  Catholic  King. 

In  the  eighteen  months  of  Cyprian's  episcopate 
before  the  outbreak  of  the  persecution,  it  was  his 
noble  aim  to  purify  the  Church  as  well  as  he  could 
by  discipline.  "Long  peace  had  corrupted,"  he  said, 
"a  divinely  delivered  discipline ;  faith  had  been  tak- 
ing her  ease  and  was  half  asleep."1  First  he  tried 
to  break  up  the  practice  of  the  clergy  assuming 
worldly  responsibility,  whether  as  tutor  or  in  trades 
or  professions.  It  is  well  known  that  for  hundreds 
of  years  it  was  not  uncommon  for  ministers  to  be 
engaged  in  secular  occupations,  like  the  local 
preachers  of  Methodism.     "A  clergyman,  learned 


1  De  Lapsis,  5. 


>kk  Tin;  Storm.  49 

in  the  Word  of  God/  says  an  ancient  statute,  "May 
seek   support   by   work   as   much   as   he   likes;"   and 

again:  "A  clergyman  may  satisfy  himself  with  food 
and  clothing  by  working  as  an  artisan  or  by  agri- 
culture, barring  detriment  to  his  office."1    We  read 

of  one  who  tended  sheep,  another  (a  bishop)  a 
weaver,  another  a  shipbuilder,  a  lawyer,  etc/"'  By 
and  by  this  was  practically  done  away  by  a  sala: 
regular  Church  income.4  During  the  peace  the 
clergy,  including  even  the  bishops,  not  only  worked 
or  traded  for  a  living,  but  pushed  their  secular  work 
with  vigor  for  pure  gain, — "they  with  insatiable 
ardor  of  covetousness  devoted  themselves  to  the  in- 
crease of  their  property."  The  bishops  "despised  the 
divine  charge,  became  agents  in  business,  deserted 
their  people,  wandered  about  in  foreign  provinces. 
hunted  the  markets  for  gainful  merchandise,  while 
brethren  were  starving  in  the  Church.  They  sought 
IS  money  in  hoards,  they  seized  estates  by 
crafty  deceits,  they  increased  their  gains  by  multi- 
plying usnri. 

A  case  was  presented  to  Cyprian  of  one  who  in 


I  •tiqua,  CC.  51,  52. 
8S...  ..."     .11      1  ......     S  ./..mm.  7l  I     j 

note  33  mil-.  '•    I.u<U<-w  in    1  >wt.  Chr.  Ant.  1 

409-11  ;   i  <-9' • 

<  I  >:.   :!.; •  5*"fr 

5  Cypr  .  1 ' 


50  Cyprian:  The:  Churchman. 

his  will  had  appointed  Faustinus,  a  presbyter,  as 
executor  (tutor)  or  curator  of  his  property.  The 
bishop  meets  the  case  with  decision.  No  offering 
shall  be  made  for  the  deceased,  nor  sacrifices  cele- 
brated for  his  repose.  The  poor  fellow  must  get  along 
as  best  he  can  in  the  other  world  without  the  prayers 
and  offerings  of  the  living.  Cyprian  refers  to  a  rule 
passed  by  the  bishops  excluding  ministers  from 
serving  as  executors  (though  the  Roman  law  made 
the  filling  of  such  appointments  obligatory)  so  that 
they  "may  not  be  called  from  their  divine  adminis- 
tration nor  be  tied  down  by  worldly  anxieties  and 
matters."6  But  this  severity,  though  no  doubt  ef- 
fective for  a  time,  did  not  at  all  break  up  the  secular 
work  of  the  clergy.  He  cites  the  Levitical  tithe, 
argues  at  this  early  stage  in  his  usual  hierarchical 
way — the  absolute  distinction  between  secular  and 
sacred,  the  obligatoriness  of  the  Old  Testament  law, 
the  minister  to  do  only  with  the  altar, — a  concep- 
tion "altogether  in  contradiction  to  the  original 
Christian  views  and  forms  of  organization."7 

An  interesting  question  was  presented  by  a  let- 
ter from  a  distant  town.  It  appears  an  actor  had 
been   received   into   the     Church,   having   first,   of 


6  Ep.  i  (65).    For  offerings  for  the  dead,  already  in  Tertullian,  see  De 
Monog.  10.  7  Bohringer,  8x6. 


r.Kinui:  Tin-   Storm.  51 

course,  given  up  his  profession.  But  on  the  ground 
of  necessity  of  living  he  had  been  training  boys  to 
the  same  life.  The  bishop  of  the  little  town  where 
the  actor  lived  wrote  Cyprian  asking  whether  this 
could  be  allowed.  The  reply  is  in  the  true  spirit  of 
Tertullian,  and  in  this  case  in  the  true  spirit  of 
Christian.  He  refers  to  the  "disgraceful  and  in- 
famous practices  of  the  theater,  emasculation  of 
boys  and  men,8  men  putting-  on  women's  garments, 
immodest  gestures,  and  the  gratification  of  the  de- 
sire by  the  sins  of  a  corrupted  and  enervated  body." 
If  it  is  a  sin  for  one  to  act  in  the  theater,  is  it  not  to 
teach  others  the  same?  If  he  is  compelled  to  this  by 
poverty,  let  the  Church  support  him  frugally,  and  if 
the  Church  is  not  able,  let  him  come  to  us.  Such  was 
the  advice  of  Cyprian.  The  Church  denied  baptism 
and  communion  to  frequenters  of  the  theater,  not 
to  speak  of  actors,  and  she  did  wisely  in  this,  be- 
cause the  theater  wa>  not  only  connected  with  idol- 
atry, but  was  an  inciter  and  purveyor  to  sin  and 
vice  in  various  and  influential  ways. — it  was  then 
and   ever   has   remained   the    foremost   opponent  to 


8  The  lat«-   Bishop  A.  Cleveland  C'xc  is  authority  for  the  statement 
that  in  •  the  fine  music  is  obtained  l>y  re- 

course  to   this   expedient    Inflicted    ii|»>n   children.      N    f   tO   his   c 
Walli-'  n,  p.  356,  m.tc  3.     See  art.  Eunuch  in  Chambers's 

Encyclopaedia  ed.  1893  or  later.     Cy; 


52  Cyprian:  The  Churchman. 

all  the  ideals  for  which  the  Church  stands.9  Later 
the  Church  found  she  could  not  carry  out  such 
strict  laws,  as  she  finds  to-day.  The  theater  was 
too  much  for  her.  Then  her  leaders,  like  Chrysos- 
tom,  Cyril,  and  Salvian,  had  to  content  themselves 
with  sharp  denunciations  of  it  and  warnings 
against  it. 

To  Christians  of  to-day,  virgins  occupying  the 
same  house  with  men,  often  the  same  room  and  even 
the  same  bed,  could  not  be  understood.  But  in  the 
early  centuries  that  was  a  common  custom,  prob- 
ably due  to  the  necessity  of  finding  homes  for  con- 
verted girls  and  women  who  had  been  disowned  by 
parents.  Then,  in  the  exaltation  of  Christian  en- 
thusiasm, in  that  prophetic  ecstasy  which  charac- 
terized some  early  Christians,  in  that  exaggerated 
estimate  of  virginity  which  was  very  early  intro- 
duced, with  the  freshness  of  faith  in  the  power  of 
the  new  life,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  this  relation 
of  dwelling  together  of  men  and  women  pledged 
to  virginity,  was  often,  as  Achelis  has  shown,  abso- 
lutely innocent  of  immorality.  But  as  time  passed 
and  the  old  enthusiasm  died  away,  and  especially 
as  the  persecutions  ceased  and  crowds  came  into  the 
Church,  it  is  evident  that  this  spiritual  bond  did  not 

9  See  Bingham,  Antiquities,  bk.  n,  ch.  5,  sections  6,  9;  bk.  16,  ch.  4, 
section  10;  and  ch.  n.  section  12. 


r.i:iMUK  thi;  Storm.  53 

always   remain   spiritual.      This   was   recognized  by 

the  Council  of  Nicea,  A.  1).  325,  which  prohibited 

the  practice,1"  as  did  also  that  of  Carthage  of 
348.11  Cyprian  had  to  meet  this  -caudal,  as  he 
recognizes  it,  and  he  does  it  in  a  thorough  and 
straightforward  manner,  lie  cuts  up  the  whole 
custom,  root  and  branch.  Virgins  must  not  even 
live  with  men  in  this  way,  not  to  speak  of  anything 
else.  Those  who  have  slept  with  men  must  he  ex- 
amined by  midwives  before  they  can  receive  com- 
munion again.  Purity  must  be  kept  at  all  hazards. 
Cyprian's  letter  is  a  noble  plea  for  discipline.  Xo 
doubt  it  had  its  effect,  but  the  continuance  of  the 
practice  for  centuries  shows  that  the  question  of  the 
relation  of  men  to  women,  of  both  to  pledges  to 
virginity,  had  not  been  solved  by  the  ancient  Cath- 
olic Church,  which  very  early  adopted  a  false  and 
unchristian  asceticism,  and  thus  helped  along  the 
condition  referred  to  as  well  as  the  corruption  with 
which  niunasticism  has  made  us  familiar.      Perhaps 

they  were  too  near  to  the  universal  pagan  customs 

of  bathing  and  sleeping  together.  A  new  civiliza- 
tion had  to  come.12 


10  Can.  3.  11  Can.  3,  4- 

H  (  Sec  also  Coxe  in   Ante  Nic.  Fathers  II,  57-8; 

Benson,  54  ami  ti"tcs  ;  V<  ii.ihl.-s,  111  Did  Chr.  Antiq.  [I,  ivj.y-4i  ;  and  csp. 
H.  AfhtHf.  Vir^mcs   SnLiiilruduLt:c;  cin  licitrag,  etc.,  LctfM.  190a. 


54  Cyprian:  The:  Churchman. 

Great  Christians  from  Tertullian  to  Wesley  have 
not  considered  woman's  dress  a  subject  too  insig- 
nificant for  treatment.  Cyprian  wrote  one  of  his 
most  vigorous  treatises  on  this  subject.  No  doubt 
he  had  more  provocation  than  Wesley,  for  heathen 
society  fostered  adornments,  luxurious,  excessive, 
unchaste,  to  which  doubtless  the  eighteenth  century 
at  its  worst  could  not  approach.  But  many  of  Ter- 
tullian's  and  Cyprian's  (who  borrowed  from  him 
wholesale)  denunciations  are  as  appropriate  to-day 
as  then.  Has  God  willed,  asks  Cyprian,  who  as  a 
mere  man  could  not  see  either  the  beauty  or  right  of 
self-mutilations  and  dyeings  and  the  efforts  to  im- 
prove on  God, — has  God  willed  that  holes  should 
be  made  in  the  ears,  by  which  the  children  should 
be  put  to  pain,  so  that  subsequently  heavy  beads 
should  be  hung  ?  Such  arts  as  the  sinning  and  apos- 
tate angels  put  forth.  It  was  they  who  taught 
women  to  pain  the  eyes  around  with  a  black  circle, 
to  stain  the  cheeks  with  a  deceitful  red,  to  change 
the  hair,  and  drive  out  truth  both  of  face  and  head. 
Then  adulterations  and  various  colorings  are  lay- 
ing hands  on  God,  whose  work  is  perfect.  Cyprian 
lashes  all  this  artificial  making-up  with  burning 
words.  In  fact,  for  virgins  who  are  given  to  Christ 
he  repudiates  adornments  of  any  kind.    Why  should 


Before  tiik  Storm.  55 

she  walk  out  adorned?  Why  with  dressed  hair,  as 
if  she  either  had  or  sought  for  a  husband?  Rather 
let  her  dread  to  please,  it  she  is  a  virgin;  let  her 
not  invite  her  own  risk  if  she  is  keeping  herself  for 
better  and  divine  things.  These  should  also  keep 
away  from  marriage  parties,  with  their  lascivious 
talk,  with  their  disgraceful  words  and  drunken  ban- 
quets, where  the  "bride  is  animated  to  hear,  and  the 
bridegroom  to  dare  lewdness."  So  also  she  should 
flee  the  baths,  where  modesty  is  laid  aside,  vice  is  en- 
ticed,— these  promiscuous  baths,  "fouler  than  a 
theater."  Is  it  any  wonder  the  Church  mourns 
over  her  virgins ;  hence  she  groans  over  their  scan- 
dalous and  detestable  stories;  hence  the  flower  of 
her  virgins  is  extinguished.  At  the  close  Cyprian 
praises  virginity,  which  is  free  from  the  sorrows 
and  pains  of  women,  the  pangs  of  child-bearing,  the 
worship  of  husband,  which  possesses  already  the 
glory  <>f  the  resurrection,  which  passing  through  the 
world  without  the  contagion  of  the  world  is  equal 

tu  the  angels  of  God.11 

From  these  earliest  writings  of  Cyprian  we  can 
readily  see  the  conditions  of  the  Christian  Church 

on  the  eve  of  the  Decian  persecution.    Some  bishops 

were  so  engrossed  in  money-making  that  they  neg- 


1'!  Di   UaS     \  ::„•     4.    14,   18,   19,  20,  11. 


56  Cyprian:  The;  Churchman. 

lected  their  work,  some  were  even  usurers.  There 
was  a  free-living  bishop  who  made  his  office  a 
means  of  gain,  ready  to  abjure  the  faith  on  occa- 
sion, and  ready  to  take  it  up  again  when  danger  was 
over.  "Cyprian  had,"  says  Augustine,14  "not  a  pri- 
vate table,  but  God's  altar  in  common  with  his  col- 
leagues,— usurers,  the  insidious,  cheats,  robbers." 
Some  were  mixed  up  with  dishonest  practices  in 
fairs  and  others  in  the  slave  trade  of  the  Sahara. 
"Some  were  too  ignorant  to  prepare  their  catechu- 
mens for  baptism,  or  to  avoid  heretical  phrases  in 
their  public  prayers,"  and  too  ignorant  or  too  care- 
less not  to  use  in  their  liturgies  the  compositions  of 
well-known  heretics.  Among  the  clergy  there  were 
makers  of  idols  and  compounders  of  incense,  and 
among  the  laity  astrologers  and  theatrical  trainers.15 
Not  a  moment  too  soon  did  Cyprian  come  on 
the  scene.  His  remedy  was  "discipline, — discipline 
the  safeguard  of  hope,  the  bond  of  faith,  the  guide 
of  the  way  of  salvation,  the  stimulus  and  nourish- 
ment of  good  dispositions,  the  teacher  of  virtue, 
which  causes  us  to  abide  always  in  Christ,  and  to 
live  continually  for  God,  and  to  attain  the  heavenly 
promises  and  the  divine  rewards."16     The  remedy 


14  Aug.  De  Bap.  c.  Donat.  VII,  45  (89). 

16  Tertullian,  De  Idolatr.  7,  9;  Gyp.  Ep.  2  (60).        16  De  Hab.  Virg.  i. 


Rktoki;  tiii:  Storm.  57 

was  good,  and  woe  to  the  Church  where  discipline 

is  a  lost  art.  But  the  disease  wa>  deep,  and  Cyprian's 

remedy  touched  the  surface  only.    What  wa 

was  a  true  Christianity.    That  was  then  historically 

impossible,  but  a  storm  was  at  the  dours  which  did 
the  wurk  in  another  fashion. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

THE  DECIAN  PERSECUTION. 

Why  did  Rome  persecute  the  Christians  ?  That 
is  a  question  whose  answer  at  first  seems  easy,  but 
the  more  one  studies  it  the  more  difficult  it  becomes. 
The  law  of  the  Twelve  Tables  forbade  strictly  any- 
one to  worship  strange  gods  unless  they  were 
adopted  by  the  State.  But  what  would  be  done 
when  foreign  lands  were  conquered?  Would  their 
gods  be  virtually  adopted  by  Rome,  who  took  in, 
as  a  matter  of  fact,  the  whole  Greek  pantheon? 
Now  as  it  never  was  an  offense  for  the  native  to 
worship  his  native  gods,  it  is  evident  that  Rome 
either  winked  at  these  strange  cults  or  in  effect 
adopted  them  as  her  own.  The  former  was  the 
fact.  The  Isis  worshiper  had  long  been  domiciled 
in  the  capital,  and,  excepting  the  bloody  Druid  re- 
ligion of  Gaul,  Rome  never  interfered  in  the  slight- 
est with  the  aboriginal  faith  of  her  conquered  lands. 
But  what  was  the  matter  with  Christianity  that  it 
could  not  share  a  like  toleration?    Chiefly  this,  that 

58 


Thk  Dkciax  Persecution.  59 

it  claimed  to  be  a  monotheistic  religion,  the  only 

true,  absolute  religion,  and  a  missionary  religion 
too,  destined  for  universal  conquest,  whom  every 
man  must  receive  to  be  saved.  Well,  what  of  it? 
Why  could  not  Rome  stand  that?  Because  her  own 
religion  was  identified  with  the  State,  glorified  and 
made  divine  by  the  Stale,  which  in  its  turn  it  glori- 
fied and  made  divine.  It  was  the  State  in  it->  god- 
ward  or  religious  aspect  The  State  found  its  head, 
it-  incarnation,  in  the  emperor,  who  thus  became 
himself  divine.  Now  the  polytheistic  religions 
found  no  fault  in  this.  Each  one  was  a  State  re- 
ligion, and  they  did  not  stumble  in  acknowledging 
the  supreme  Roman  religion  over  all.  For  this 
reason  the  boasted  tolerance  of  Rome  stopped  at 
Christianity.  As  a  great  Church  historian  says,  the 
"tolerance  of  the  State  had  polytheism  as  a  presup- 
position."1 But  Judaism  was  monotheistic,  and 
that  was  tolerated.  Yes,  hut  Judaism  was  a  na- 
tional faith  which  did  not  try  to  make  proselytes, 
and    which    as    to    its    chief   center    of    worship    had 

1  to  exist  after  A.  D.  70.    Tt  did  not  present 
at  all  the  same  problem  to  the  State  as  Christianity. 

It    i-   true  that    popular  clamor   imputed    fearful 


1  V-)n   S  btlbert'l    M  liter,   K  T,  •   aUo 

Harnack  in  the  H.iu<  k-Hcrzog.  3    Aufl.  Ill,  827-8    1 


60  Cyprian:  The  Churchman. 

crimes  to  the  Christians, — murder,  incest,  child-eat- 
ing, and  abominable  deeds  of  darkness,  and  it  may 
be  there  were  cases  in  which  the  adverse  decision 
of  the  magistrate  was  determined  by  these  alleged 
crimes.  But  it  is  a  fact  that  they  play  no  part — 
or  at  least  a  very  small  part — in  our  historical 
sources.  Almost  always  the  action  turns  on  the 
charge  of  sacrilege  and  treason  (lese  majcste),  and 
the  former  because  of  the  latter.  The  accused  is 
asked  to  sacrifice  to  the  gods  or  to  the  emperor's 
image, — one  or  both,  and  it  made  no  difference 
which.  If  he  refused  the  former,  he  was  guilty  of 
sacrilege  (sacrilegium),  if  the  latter,  majestas  or 
treason,  but  every  time  the  former  had  fatal  conse- 
quences only  because  it  implied  in  the  mind  of  the 
pagan  Roman  the  latter.  As  a  mere  religion  Chris- 
tianity might  have  been  tolerated.  Most  of  its  re- 
ligious peculiarities  were  a  matter  of  indifference  to 
the  authorities,  and  its  moral  teachings  often  com- 
mended it  to  them.  It  was  only  when  the  political 
side  of  its  monotheism  came  out  that  the  sword 
fell.  When  Tertullian  in  his  powerful  Apology 
speaks  of  the  Roman  religion  as  a  religion,  he 
treats  it  with  jokes,  scorn  and  derision:  he  knew  he 
could  do  that.  But  when  he  comes  to  the  political 
side  of  it  in  its  bearing  upon  the   Christians  he 


Tine  Dixian  Persecution.  6i 

labors  hard  ami  soberly  to  show  that  the  political 

Side  receives  no  injury,  that  the  Christians  are  loyal 
and  reverent  to  the  emperor.  Though  they  will  not 
offer  to  him,  they  pray  for  him,  and  are  absolutely 
faithful  to  him  in  every  political  relation. 

It  must  be  remembered  that  until  Dccius  there 
were  no  express  laws  against  the  Christians  as  such. 
Their  trials  proceeded  always  under  the  general 
police  or  criminal  jurisprudence  of  the  empire; 
which  was  not  closely  defined  or  limited,  but  was 
general  and  elastic,  and  left  large  play  to  the  in- 
dividual judgment  or  caprice  of  the  president  of 
the  court  who  was  the  prefect,  proconsul,  or  gov- 
ernor. The  civil  law  of  Rome  was  fixed  fast,  with 
well  understood  rules ;  the  criminal  law  was  not. 
It  was  something  like  the  police  power  of  a  modern 
State,  which  can  soon  override  the  people's  lib- 
erties in  case  of  assumed  necessity,  like  an  uproar, 
mutiny,  riot,  etc.,  or  like  the  power  of  a  ship  cap- 
tain. For  this  reason  a  tolerant  and  free  thinking 
governor,  or  even   a   careless   and   Callio-like   one, 

could  let  the  Christians  go  if  he  thought  there  were 

no  immediate  danger  to  the  State;  while  an  upright 
and  strict  ruler,  patriotic  and  devoted  to  the  na- 
tional ideals,  could  easily  sel  the  forces  of  persecu- 
tion at  work.     Strictly  speaking,  as   Ilarnaek  says, 


62  Cyprian:  Ths  Churchman. 

there  were  no  persecutions  (except  perhaps  that  of 
Nero)  in  ancient  times.  They  were  always  covered 
by  the  general  law  of  police — a  nation's  law  of  self- 
preservation.  But  emperors  and  governors  would 
interpret  and  apply  the  law  according  to  their  char- 
acter or  disposition,  or  according  to  circumstances, 
the  local  situation,  etc.  Popular  clamor,  too,  played 
a  far  larger  part  than  it  ought  in  both  pagan  and 
Christian  Rome's  persecutions,  as  it  plays  to-day  in 
lynch-law  and  other  outbreaks  in  the  United  States. 
At  any  rate,  all  can  understand  from  this  why  per- 
secutions were  sporadic  and  intermittent,  why  there 
were  long  stretches  of  time  with  comparative  peace, 
when  the  Church  therefore  grew  with  leaps  and 
bounds.  Probably  there  was  not  a  decade,  perhaps 
not  a  year,  without  its  persecutions ;  still  up  to  the 
time  of  Decius  no  general  or  far-reaching  measures 
of  repression  were  undertaken.  Origen  says  that 
only  a  few  suffered  for  the  Christian  cause.2  "In 
increasing  measure,"  says  Harnack,  "Christians 
were  in  all  conditions  in  life  and  in  all  professions, 


2  He  was  writing  about  245,  and  his  words  are  :  "  For  in  order  to  re- 
mind others  that  by  seeing  a  few  engaged  in  the  struggle  for  their  religion 
they  also  might  be  better  fitted  to  despise  death,  some  on  special  occasions, 
and  these  individuals,  which  could  be  easily  numbered,  endured  death  for 
the  sake  of  Christianity, — God  not  permitting  the  whole  nation  to  be  ex- 
terminated, but  desiring  that  it  should  continue,  and  that  the  whole  world 
should  be  filled  with  this  salutary  and  religious  doctrine." — Contra.  Cels. 
3,8. 


Tin:  PixiAN  Persecution.  63 

whose  Christian  position  was  notorious"  without  a 

hair  of  their  head  being  crumpled;  on  the  other 

hand,  at  times,  in  some  provinces  (at  the  discretion 
of  the  governor),  and  under  some  emperors,  they 
had  to  suffer  severely."4 

The    Samson    athlete,    Emperor   Maximin    the 
Thracian   (235-8),  was  the  first  to  issue  an  edict 
which  had  for  its  object. the  total  destruction  of  the 
Church  as  an  organization  by  the  destruction  of  its 
officers.     Happily  his  edict  was  still-born.     It  was 
left  to  Deems   (249-51)   to  break  the  long  peace, 
and  to  inaugurate  the  most  widespread  and  relent- 
less persecution  which  had  been  known  up  to  his 
time.     I  should  have  said  that  in  these  trials  for 
sacrilege  and  (religious)  treason,  not  only  did  the 
president  wait  for  some  popular  impulse  or  clamor 
or  appearance  of  sedition,  and,  after  Trajan,  uni- 
formly demand  specific  charges,  though  he  could 
go  on  his  own  initiative  if  he  wished,  in  the  trials 
themselves  much  was  also  left  to  the  discretion  of 
the  court.     There  were  no  binding  forms  in  this 
police  court,  no  universally  recognized  precedents. 
The   trial   might  not  take  over  five  minutes,— ap- 
parently the  last  hearing  of  Cyprian  did  not.     Are 
you  a  Christian0     Yes.     Will  VOU  offer  to  the  gods 


»T«r., Ap.  1,4*  •illmk-ii  .11.111,829.    -• 


64  Cyprian:  The:  Churchman. 

and  to  the  emperor?  No.  Let  him  be  punished. 
Sometimes  other  forms  were  used.  Almost  always 
the  accused  could  immediately  vindicate  his  loyalty 
by  then  and  there  offering  to  the  gods  and  to  the 
emperor's  image,  or  by  swearing  by  the  genius  of 
the  emperor.  When  he  did  he  was  immediately  set 
free,  though  even  this  was  in  part  at  the  discretion 
of  the  court.  He  could  be  examined  by  torture,  and 
in  the  Decian  outbreak  that  horrible  method  both 
of  securing  evidence  and  of  punishing  was  fre- 
quently used.  As  to  punishment,  if  found  guilty, 
much  was  also  left  free.  Death  was  the  normal, 
by  beheading,  by  crucifixion,  by  being  thrown  to 
wild  beasts,  by  starving  and  other  prison  tortures. 
The  Roman  citizen  gained  no  advantage  in  trials 
for  sacrilege  and  majestas;  if  guilty  he  could  be 
burned  or  tortured  to  death  as  quickly  as  a  bar- 
barian, though  the  judge  might  respect  his  rank 
and  citizenship  and  order  beheading.  But  here 
again  the  president  was  free.  He  was  not  abso- 
lutely compelled  to  sentence  to  death,  he  could  im- 
prison, or  banish,  or  sentence  to  the  mines  (gen- 
erally the  Sardinian  mines,  and  a  fearful  punish- 
ment). He  could,  and  often  did,  exhort  to  peni- 
tence, defer  the  trial,  and  by  various  means,  fair 
and  foul,  induce  recantation.    Strange  uncertainties 


Tin-:  DEC]  \n    PERSECUTION.  65 

hung-  around  these  Roman  criminal-police  trials. 
DM  these  uncertainties  make  the  Christian's  lot 
lighter  or  harder?  As  to  maidens  or  women,  it 
was  wild  beasts,  burning,  imprisonment,  banish- 
ment, or  often  houses  of  ill-fame. 

Decins  was  horn  near  Sirmium  from  a  Roman 
or  Romanized  family,  was  governor  of  Dacia  and 
Moesia  under  Philip  the  Arabian,  was  commissi 
against  the  Goths,  called  to  the  empire  by  his  troops, 
and  defeated  and  slew  Philip,  his  predecessor,  at 
Verona,  249.  What  led  him  to  come  out  against 
the  Christians  is  not  clear.  From  hints  here  and 
there  we  gather  that  wrath  and  jealousy  filled  him 
because  the  national  worship  was  being  pushed  in 
the  background  by  the  new  faith,0  for  which  he 
must  therefore  have  had  a  genuine  regard,  lie 
would  rather  have  seen  a  rival  prince  than  a  priest 
of  God  established  in  Rome.0  He  was  especially 
furious  against  the  priests,  says  Cyprian  (tyrannus 
infestus  sacerdotibus),  and  Gregory  of  Nyssa  adds 
that  he  tried  to  break  up  the  whole  organization  of 
the  Church.7  From  this  it  appears  that  the  growth 
.  i'  Church  government  in  a  Catholic  direction,  a 
growth   which   had   been   stimulated   so   greatly   by 


5  Grc;  (6,  9+4. 

tCypr.  I  ;-.  is  (51  !-  946- 

5 


66  Cyprian  :  The:  Churchman. 

the  heresies  of  the  second  century,  which  had  now 
reached  a  climax  in  the  close  world-wide  network 
of  deacons,  priests,  and  bishops,  and  which  even 
now  gave  to  the  bishop  in  Rome  a  moral  supremacy, 
though  more  in  high-sounding  words  than  in  sub- 
stance, this  spiritual  kingdom  which  stood  over 
against  the  empire,  aggressive,  infectious,  penetrat- 
ing, a  State  within  a  State — it  was  this  organization 
which  excited  the  jealousy  and  fear  of  the  emperor 
and  his  censor  Valerian,  his  adviser  and  right  hand 
man,  and  finally  his  successor  on  the  throne  and  on 
the  track  of  the  Christians.  Besides  he  looked  upon 
the  clergy  as  in  a  sense  partisans  of  his  murdered 
predecessor,  Philip  the  Arabian.  Then  the  millennial 
anniversary  of  the  founding  of  Rome,  celebrated 
by  that  emperor  with  pomp  and  games,  April  21, 
248,  served  to  deepen  and  clarify  the  national  con- 
sciousness, and  to  sharpen  it  against  those  who 
could  not  join  in  the  festivities  with  any  heart.8 

The  policy  of  opportunism  which  had  ruled  from 
Trajan  (98ft*)  to  himself  was  brushed  aside.  The 
first  determined,  systematic,  and  general  measures 
against  the  Christians  were  set  on  foot  in  the  epoch- 
making  edict  of  250.     Its  wording  is  lost,  but  its 


8  On  these  millennial  celebrations  see  Gibbon,  Ch.  VII,  Ed.     Smith, 
I,  459-60. 


The  Decian  Persecution.  67 

purport  is  all  too  well  known.  All  Christians,  with- 
out regard  to  age  and  sex,  shall  be  asked  to  sacri- 
fice and  to  take  part  in  the  sacrificial  meal ;  torture 
shall  be  used  if  necessary ;  if  the  Christians  deny 
the  faith  the  matter  is  left  to  the  discretion  of  the 
judge;  but  it  is  not  left  to  his  discretion  whether  he 
shall  carry  out  the  decree,  for  that  is  secured  by 
threats  of  punishment,  and  withal  by  a  special  sac- 
rificial commission.9  Sometimes  those  who  con- 
fessed were  sent  away  to  immediate  death  by  cruci- 
fixion, fire,  beheading;,  stoning,  or  hunger;  at  other 
times  they  were  labored  with  or  imprisoned,  hoping 
for  recantation.  In  prison  it  was  expected  to  break 
them  down  by  hunger,  thirst,  heat,  or  other  tortures, 
soastosave  them  at  last.  Celerinus  at  Rome  was  even 
personally  besought  by  either  Decius  or  Valerian 
to  abandon  his  faith,  but  without  success.  "He  lay 
in  punishments,  but  the  stronger  for  them ;  impris- 
oned, but  greater  than  those  who  imprisoned  him  ; 
lying  prostrate,  but  loftier  than  those  who  stood ; 
bound,  but  firmer  than  the  chains :  judged,  but  more 
sublime  than  those  who  judged  him,"  etc.10  Among 
the  bishops  slain  was  Fabian  in  Rome,  Alexander  in 
Jerusalem.  Babylas  in  Antioch  ;  while  others  saved 


9  Cypr.  Fp.  43  'rj'  !   •'  Five  leaders  lately  associated  with  a  magistrate 
in  an  edict."     See  also  the  libelli  quoted  below.  10  Kp.  39  {33  ,  2. 


68  Cyprian  :  The  Churchman. 

themselves  by  flight,  as  Cyprian  in  Carthage,  Diony- 
sius  in  Alexandria,  Chseremon  of  Nilus,  and  Greg- 
ory the  Wonder  Worker  in  Neo  Csesarea.  The 
goods  of  the  fled  were  confiscated,  and  many  of 
the  fugitives  were  destroyed  by  the  sufferings  of 
the  way. 

It  is  unnecessary  to  say  that,  with  a  spiritual 
condition  of  the  Church  such  as  I  have  already 
described,  thousands  fell  away.  Would  more  stand 
to-day?  The  majority  of  the  congregation  in  Car- 
thage immediately  disowned  Christianity.  They  could 
not  quickly  enough  crowd  around  the  officers  and 
get  certificates  of  quittance.11  When  the  magis- 
trates wanted  to  put  off  the  examinations  with  the 
coining  on  of  evening,  the  Christians  could  hardly 
submit  to  the  delay.  Cyprian  scorches  them  with 
burning  words  for  this  unseemly  haste  spiritually  to 
destroy  themselves.  "Why  bring  with  you,  O 
wretched  man,  a  sacrifice?  Why  immolate  a  vic- 
tim? You  yourself  have  come  to  the  altar  an  of- 
fering, you  yourself  have  come  a  victim ;  there  you 
have  immolated  upon  salvation  your  hope;  there 
you  have  burnt  up  your  faith  in  the  deadly  fires."12 
It  was  the  same  in  other  cities,  though  in  Rome 
more  stood  firm.     "The   Church  in  Rome  stands 


11  Cyp.  de  Lapsis,  7.  12  Ibid.  8. 


The:  Decian  Persecution.  69 

firmly  in  faith,  though  some  have  been  driven  by 
terror."13  It  was  a  universal  picture  of  devastation 
— "look  upon  the  world  devastated,  and  thrown 
everywhere  are  the  relics  and  ruins  of  the  fallen."14 
Cyprian  sees  himself  placed  "among  the  ruins  of  the 
wailing,  the  relics  of  the  fearing,  the  great  slaughter 
of  the  yielding,  and  the  little  firmness  of  those  stand- 
ing."15 It  was  a  world-wide  sorrow.  The  confess- 
ors felt  themselves  "placed  among  various  and 
manifold  griefs,  on  account  of  the  present  desola- 
tions of  many  brethren  throughout  almost  the  whole 
world."16 

Perhaps  worse  than  straightforward  denial  was 
the  bribery  of  corrupt  officials  to  place  the  names 
of  the  bribe-givers  on  the  list  of  the  offering  ones 
(acta  facientes),  generally  by  the  presentation  of 
an  officially  certified  paper  that  such  an  one  had 
sacrificed  (libellatici),  by  which  personal  appear- 
ance before  the  authorities  was  avoided.  Cyprian 
says  these  must  repent  exactly  the  same  as  though 
they  had  sacrificed,17  though  he  describes  some  of 
them  as  not  going  to  the  heathen  altars  through 
conscientious  motives,  and  as  sending  a  friend  to 
the  officers  with  the  frank  avowal  that  they  are 
Christians  and  can  not  come  to  the  demons'  "altars," 

13  Cyp.  Ep.  8  (2),  2.  M  Ibid.  30,  5.  I15  ILiJ-  "  (7).  8. 

16  Ibid.  31  (25),  i.  17  De  Lapsis,  27. 


70  Cyprian:  The  Churchman. 

and  that  therefore  they  "pay  a  price  for  not  doing 
what  is  not  lawful  for  me  to  do."ls  This  shows 
the  easy  corruptibility  of  the  pagan  officers,  who 
almost  tempted  the  Christians  to  buy  their  lives 
("when  the  opportunity  of  securing  a  certificate 
was  offered").  Let  it  be  said  to  Cyprian's  credit 
that  his  ethical  sense  here  was  perfectly  sound.19 

Who  would  have  believed  that  after  centuries 
and  more  there  would  have  been  unearthed  these 
very  tell-tale  certificates?  Did  those  poor  Chris- 
tians who  thus,  moved  by  mortal  fear,  purchased 
their  safety  ever  think  that  their  falseness  would 
come  forth  in  the  far-off  years  and  condemn  them 
out  of  the  very  sands?  An  interesting  illustration 
of  the  solemn  word,  "There  is  nothing  hid  that  shall 
not  be  revealed."20  In  1893  and  1894  two  of  these 
testimonials  were  dug  up  in  the  province  of 
Faioum,  southwest  of  Cairo.  One  is  in  the 
Breugsch  collection  of  the  Berlin  Museum,  the  other 
in  that  of  Archduke  Rainer  in  Vienna.  They  are 
little  pieces  of  papyrus  leaf,  written  in  Greek,  much 
damaged  after  their  long  waiting  for  the  light. 
They  have  been  skillfully  integrated  and  deciphered, 
one  (the  Brugsch)  by  Dr.  Fritz  Krebs,  the  other  by 
Professor  K.  Wessely.     The  Rainer  papyrus  is  ac- 

18  Ep.  55  (Si),  M-  19Ep.  30,  3. 

20  Matt,  x,  26  ;  Mark  iv,  22 ;  Luke  xii,  2. 


T 1 1 1 ;  Dkcian  Persecution.  71 

hie  to  our  readers  in  the  1  [urst  "History  of  the 

Christian  Church,"  I,  243.  and  J  copy  here  a  trans- 
lation of  the  Krebfl : 

"To  the  commissioners  of  sacrifice  of  the  vilL 

of  Alexander's  island   from  AurellUS  ]  '  (son 

Of)    Satabus,   Of  the   village  Of   Alexander'-    Kland. 

About  72.  Scar  on  right  eyebrow.  I  was  both  con- 
stant in  ever  sacrificing  to  the  gods,  and  now  in 
your  presence,  according  to  the  precepts,  I  sacri- 
ficed and  drank  and  tasted  of  the  victims,  and  I 
beseech  you  to  certify  this.  May  you  ever  prosper. 
I,  Aurelius  Diogenes  have  delivered  this."  (  Then 
follows    in    another    handwriting,    hardly    readable, 

the   certificate   of   the   officers)    "I    Aurelius 

( ?  saw  )  him  sacrificing.  I,  Nfys  |  thes,  son  of). .. . 
non  have  signed. 

"First  year  of  the  Emperor  Caesar. 

Gains  Messius    Quintus 
Trajanus   Decius   Tins 
Felix  Augustus. 
2d  day  of  Epiphi.*1    (June  26,  250.) 

21  For  the  BrttgSCB  r  t]  t«  d.  Konig. 

Prcus.  Akademie  tl.  W. 

.    I. it/.  20.  Jan.  1894,  38-41  ;   Ki 
(iebietc   dcr  lit*     1889-I  •    '  '   '        ■    '      "• 

Iswurth  in  The  Guardian,  Jan.  31,  18941 

,•  in  Sitsuni  ■'■   ■!    K    A  141-B 

Wien.  1894;    Harnack  ia  Thaol    Lit 

1   March  U,   i8>>4,  43s,     tor  both  »cc  Appendix   Li.  in  Licusun, 
Cyprian  541-4. 


72  Cyprian:  The  Churchman. 

But  there  were  thousands  of  brave  ones  who 
would  not  deny  their  Lord.  The  Martyr  Acts  give 
us  accounts  of  Pionius  and  his  companions  in 
Smyrna,  of  Maximus,  of  Lucianus,  and  Marcianus, 
and  other  names  are  in  the  letter  of  Dionysius  to 
Eusebius22  and  in  the  letters  of  Cyprian.  The 
prisons  were  full  of  sufferers,  and  many,  especially 
the  clergy,  were  put  to  death.  We  must  never 
think,  however,  of  the  wholesale  executions — not 
to  speak  of  massacres — which  characterized  the 
Roman  Catholic  suppression  of  the  Protestants. 
Nothing  like  the  rescript  of  Trajan  is  known  in 
these  later  annals,  and  the  methodical  and  carefully 
legal,  though  relentless,  forms  of  Decius  and  Gale- 
rius  would  have  seemed  almost  like  Paradise  to  those 
who  suffered  in  the  wholesale  butcheries  of  the  six- 
teenth century.  And  to  the  poor  Jews  of  the  Middle 
Ages,  the  worst  Roman  emperor  by  the  side  of 
their  Christian  persecutors  shone  white  and  fair. 

We  need  not  be  surprised  if  the  devastating 
effects  of  the  Decian  onslaught  made  a  profound 
impression  on  the  imagination  of  the  Church.  It 
reminded  Dionysius  of  Alexander  of  the  last  times 
before  the  coming  of  the  Lord;23  Lucian  calls  De- 


22  Eus.  H.  E.  6,  40-42.     For  the  maityrologies  see  Ruinart  and  the  se- 
lections of  von  Gcbhardt,  1902,  and  Preuschen,  1905.    . 

23  Eus.  6,  41,  10. 


Tm:  Deciam  Persecution.  73 

cius  the  "pioneer  of  antichrist  f*4  Hilary  of  Poitiers 
places  ln's  persecution  together  with  that  of  Nero?1 
I  tptatus  of  Mileve  thinks  of  the  four  beasts  of  Dan- 
id.  and  says:  "The  first  beasl  w,  ':<>n:  this 
was  the  persecution  under  Decius  and  Valerian  ;"*• 
hut  the  worst  was  the  judgment  of  I.actantius — 
"the  execrable  animal  Decius.1 

Professor  Victor  Schultze  makes  the  point  that 
this  persecution  can  not  strictly  he  called  a  general 

one.  even  if  it  was  so  intended.  The  imperial  order 
was  not  caried  out  in  some  places,  and  in  Others 
only  apparently.  It  was  chiefly  confined  to  the 
citie>.  though  not  altogether,  as  the  libelli  just  re- 
ferred to  show.  "The  unquiet  political  relations  did 
not  allow  systematic  measures  strongly  and  con- 
sistently to  be  carried  through,  and  these  measures 
therefore  never  went  farther  than  having  the  effect 
of  a  quickly  passing  convulsion."-^ 

-'  In  Cvp.    Ep.    -1     .1  ,    1:    mctator    antichristi.      Metator  is   a   land 
or,  and  sometimes  the  surveyor  who  goes  before  to  measure  I 
the  camp.  25  Contra  Constantium,  4.  26  !)•  '11.3,8. 

icrsec,  4.       ■  Art.  Dodus  in  Haock-Hcraof,  3.  Aai,  1 


CHAPTER  VII. 

A  NEW  QUESTION  IN  DISCIPLINE. 

When  the  storm  burst  Cyprian  secured  himself 
by  flight.  The  heathens  of  the  city  cried  out  vio- 
lently in  the  circus  and  on  the  streets,  "Cyprian  to 
the  lions !"  His  presence  in  the  city  made  the  storm 
heavier  for  the  Christians,  and  to  relieve  them,  to 
save  himself  for  the  congregation  at  a  difficult  time 
when  they  specially  needed  his  guiding  and  con- 
trolling hand,  he  obeyed  the  Lord's  command,1  and 
fled  for  refuge  elsewhere.  His  hiding  place  was  a 
secret  to  the  authorities,  though  known  to  faithful 
friends,  through  whom  by  letters  Cyprian  exercised 
a  careful  and  conscientious  oversight  over  his  flock. 
However  little  we  can  blame  him,  his  flight  gave  to 
the  five  dissatisfied  presbyters  a  handle  for  criti- 
cism. They  accused  him  of  cowardice  and  aban- 
doning his  flock,  and  what  was  specially  odious, 
they  wrote  to  other  Churches,  especially  to  Rome, 
and  placed  his  flight  in  the  worst  light.    Rome  had 

1  Matt,  x,  23;  cf.  John  xviii,  8. 

74 


A  New  Question  in  Discipline.         75 

lost  her  own  bishop  by  martyrdom,  and  doubt! 
there  were  some  there  who  would  wonder  a; 
apparent  lack  of  fidelity.    They  therefore  wrote  him 

a  letter,  which  did  contain  indirect  and  yet  QOt  in- 
distinct reflections.9     Cyprian  defended  himself  in 

a  letter  t«>  his  clergy  and  later  to  Cornelius  in  Rome, 
showed  the  motive  which  led  him  to  ike,  and  besides 
that  already  mentioned,  referred  tu  visions  and 
Divine  commands. 

A  new  question  now  arose — that  is,  what  is  to 
he  done  with  apostates  who  desire  to  return  to  the 
Church?  This,  of  course,  was  not  absolutely  a  new 
question,  because  in  every  persecution  there  had 
been  such  cases.  I  hit  in  the  thirty-eight  years  of 
peace  a  new  generation  had  come  on  the  scene.  Be- 
sides never  he  fore  had  the  Church  been  struck  so 
hard,  so  suddenly  and  so  universally,  and  there  were 
crowds  of  lapsed  in  nearly  every  large  town.  When 
the  persecution  ceased   after  eighteen   months,  and 

even  before  it  ceased,  many  of  the  unfaithful  ones 

desired  to  he  taken  lack.    With  thousands  clamor- 
ing i<>r  admi»ion,  tin.  question  was  by  no  means  so 
as  when  the  Church  had  pen- 

ance on  a  few.  Still  more,  the  question  was  com- 
plicated by  martyr  certificat    .  of  which  later. 


-1, 


76  Cyprian:  The:  Churchman. 

What  would  the  apostolic  Church  have  done 
with  one  who  in  storm  of  persecution  had  gone  back 
to  heathenism,  and  later  desired  to  return?  After 
penitence,  he  would  have  been  received  back  into 
full  membership.  By  and  by  there  grew  up  an  ar- 
tificial distinction  in  regard  to  both  virtue  and  sin, 
at  which  perhaps  asceticism  lay  at  the  root.  Instead 
of  a  heart  converted  to  God  and  serving  Him  gladly 
in  the  joy  of  a  new  life,  the  Catholic  conception  of 
morality  grew  up  which  looked  upon  perfection  as 
the  rare  attainment  of  few,  notably  the  abstinent. 
Then  certain  sins  came  to  be  regarded  as  so  heinous 
that  when  once  a  Christian  had  committed  them, 
though  penitence  was  required  and  final  salvation 
not  denied,  yet  the  Church  herself  would  not  re- 
ceive the  sinner  into  her  ranks  again.  By  the  end 
of  the  second  century  this  appears  to  have  been  the 
rule.  Already  in  Hermas,  about  150,  the  adulterer 
can  only  be  received  back  after  the  first  offense. 
The  second  cuts  him  off  finally.3  Besides,  Christ 
is  coming  soon,  and  he  will  decide  the  matter  Him- 
self. 

With  the  exaggerated  emphasis  on  baptism,  due 
also  to  the  Catholic  evolution,  it  came  to  be  con- 


3  Mand.  4  :  i,  8.     For  cropping  out  of  Catholic  ideas,  see  Did.  6,  Anc. 
Horn.  (=>"  2  Clem  ")  7,  3,  Herm.  Sim.  5,  3. 


A  \'i:w  Question  in  Discipline.         77 
sidered  that  while  baptism  wiped  away  effectually 

all  former  scores,  -rave  sins  committed  after  bap- 
tism could  find  no  formal  forgiveness  here,  though 

the  Church  would  still  pray  for  the  offender  and 

hope  for  the  best  from  God.4     This  conception  was 
all  the  harder,  as  Moeller  well   says,  for   with  the 
consolidation    of    the    societies    into    the    Catholic 
Church,  which  was  going  on  in  the  latter  part  of 
the  second  century  and  all  through  the  third,  ex- 
clusion from  one  society  meant  exclusion  from  the 
whole  Church.5     The  three  sins  which  fell  into  the 
category  of  mortal  irremissible  sins  were  murder, 
adultery,  and  apostasy  to  heathenism,  and  perhaps 
sins  nearly  related  to  them.     As  early  as  177,  at 
Lyons  and  Yienne  in  France,  it  would  appear  that 
the  guilt  of  apostasy  could  be  wiped  out  only  by  a 
manful  confession  at  the  same  or  a  subsequent  per- 
secution,0 though  at  Corinth  at  the  same  time  ap- 
parently all  sinners  could  be  restored.1     At  about 
200  there  was  a  regular  scale  for  penance  and  pun- 
ishments; the  lighter  was  confession  of  ordinary 
and    the    daily    prayer    for    forgiveness,    with 
warning  and  correction:  the  heavier  involved  ex- 
clusion, followed  with  severe  confessions  and  pen- 

4  Ircn.  <  :  *  *  i  *«.,  ^e  Pud.  7  *  Von  Schubcrt-MuUcr,   KG. 

I,  279.  «  Eus.  5 :  1,  33.  46.  7  Ibid-  4  :  a3.  «• 


78  Cyprian:  Thk  Churchman. 

ances,  but  ending  in  return  to  Church  fellowship ; 
the  heaviest  of  all  (for  the  three  deadly  sins  men- 
tioned above)  was  exclusion  from  the  Church  for 
all  time,  the  offender  being  placed  in  the  ranks  of 
lifelong  penitents  and  the  final  decision  being  re- 
ferred to  God. 

Along  with  this  there  came  the  idea  of  merit, 
that  pardon  might  be  more  readily  received  by  as- 
cetic virtues,  and  that  these  might  compensate  for 
the  graver  sins  and  their  eternal  punishment.8  So 
sprung  up  the  idea  of  satisfaction,  which  hoped  from 
fasting,  kneeling,  wearing  sackcloth  and  ashes,  etc., 
to  receive  special  grace  and  favor,9  whereas  at  the 
beginning  the  self-denials  served  only  to  prove  the 
earnestness  of  the  penitent.  The  two  great  Roman 
jurists,  Tertullian  and  Cyprian,  helped  to  bring  in 
this  legal  idea, — an  externalization  of  the  relations 
between  man  and  God  which  has  ruled  Latin  theol- 
ogy from  that  day  to  this.  If  therefore  the  sinner 
could  in  some  way  get  these  penitential  works  to  his 
credit,  the  way  would  be  opened  for  his  readmit- 
tance,  even  if  he  were  a  mortal  sinner. 

I  said  a  moment  ago  that  the  case  was  compli- 
cated in  Carthage  by  the  letters  of  the  martyrs. 
These  were  simply  certificates  or  briefs  issued  by 


8  Ter.  De  Poen.  9.  9  De  Poen.  9 ;  De  Pud.  5 ;  De  Pat.  13. 


A  N'kw  Question  in  Discipline.  79 

confessors  and  martyrs  to  the  effect  that  the  person 
receiving  the  letter  had  done  penance  for  his  apos- 
from  Christianity,  and  praying  <>r  demanding 
that  he  be  taken  in  again.  The  lapsed  thronged 
around  the  cells  of  the  sufferers,  and  by  impor- 
tunity, flatteries,  weeping,  etc.,  obtains  from  them 

those  letters  of  peace,  or  martyr's  certificates  of 
favor.  But  why  did  they  go  to  these?  Here  again 
we  must  go  back  a  little.  At  the  beginning  the 
congregation  received  the  penitent  acting  through 
the  president  or  elders.10  But  the  apostles  and 
prophets,  as  special  bearers  of  the  Spirit,  were  al- 
-  looked  upon  as  competent  to  represent  the 
society  in  these  or  other  functions,  and  if  any  pre- 
cedence was  granted,  it  was  these  and  not  the  elders 
or  bishops  who  enjoyed  it.11  Now  after  these  char- 
ismatic offices  of  apostles  and  prophets  had  van- 
ished, martyrs  or  confessors  came  to  be  regarded  as 
having  authority  something  similar,  inasmuch  as 
they  had  Stood  the  highest  test  of  Christianity  in  the 

of  threatened  death,  and  thus  proved  that  the 

r  of  the  Spirit  specially  dwelt  in  them.1-    They 
therefore  could  forgive  SUM  «>r  mediate  the  forgive- 

nesfl  of  the  society.    Inasmuch  as  martyrdom  itself 


\p.   39.  11  I   COff     v,    ;,  4.       Did.   IO,  7. 

12  Hip.  Dc  Christ,  et  Antichrist  99;   Hcrmas,  Vis.  3,  5. 


80  Cyprian:  The:  Churchman. 

wiped  away  the  stains  of  the  worst  sins,13  it  created 
merit  in  overabundance,  from  which  it  could  be 
communicated  to  the  needy.14 

One  can  readily  see,  therefore,  how  the  martyrs' 
letters  of  peace  came  to  play  such  a  large  part  in  the 
Decian  persecution,  and  how  there  might  arise  a 
jealousy  on  the  part  of  the  bishops  in  regard  to 
the  too  zealous  exercise  of  their  prerogatives.  Lit- 
tle by  little,  but  with  the  relentlessness  of  an  on- 
coming tide,  the  standing  office,  especially  that  of 
bishop,  replaced  the  free  charismatic  office  of  apostle 
and  prophet.  By  the.  time  the  second  century  had 
passed  this  substitution  was  well-nigh  complete.  By 
the  bishop's  mouth  the  society  proclaimed  to  the  sin- 
ner forgiveness  or  excommunication.  He  had 
taken  into  his  hands  the  watching  over  both  doctrine 
and  life.  He  forgave  the  lighter  sins;  he  was,  in 
fact,  the  doorkeeper  of  the  Church.15  At  the  bot- 
tom Tertullian  always  looked  upon  the  society  itself 
as  proper  possessor  of  the  power  of  the  keys,16  but 
with  that  the  bishops,  as  the  successors  of  the  apos- 
tles, were  generally  thought  of  as  those  who  had  the 
right  of  holding  and  loosing  sins.  As  a  matter  of 
course,  the  more  the  official  importance  of  the 
bishop,  the  objective  worth  of  his  office  as  mediat- 

13  Ter.,  De  Pud.  22.  14  Eus.  H.  E.  5 :  2,  6,  7. 

15  Ter.,  De  Pud.  14,  18.        16  Ibid.  21. 


A  Xkw  Question  in  Hi  mum. ink.         8i 

ing  salvation,  waxed,  the  more  his  real  importance 

as  a  man  representing  the  holiness  of  the  Gospel, 

his    subjective    character    of    moral    purity,    waned. 

•  took  the  place  of  character.  "The  bishops1 
office  was  the  natural  ally  of  lax  penitential  disci- 
pline."17 

It  is  interesting  to  see  the  mixing  of  these  two 

streams  in  Tertullian.  He  considered  everything  a 
heavy  sin  which  carries  with  it  an  injury  of  the  con- 
gregation as  the  temple  of  God,18  and  he  ap- 
propriates the  utterance  of  the  Paraclete  that  the 
Church  has  a  right  to  forgive  sins  because  she  has 
the  Spirit  in  her  prophets,  though  from  pedagogic 
motives,  she  actually  does  not  do  it.19  Idolatry, 
adulter}',  and  murder  are  unforgivable  sins,  so  far 
as  Churchly  recognition  is  concerned.-"  The  bishop 
as  the  organ  of  the  society  has  the  right  to  forgive 
lighter  sins  (delicta  leviora),  that  is,  those  which  do 
not  belong  to  the  three  major.-1 

A  new  Stage  enters  with  Callistus.  bishop  of 
Rome,  who  in  217-S  peremptorally  issued  an  edict 
in  which  on  his  own  motion  he  said:  "To  those  who 
have  done  penance  I  remit  the  sins  of  adultery  and 
fornication."*1    This  novel  decree  was  all  the  more 


\'  Von  Schubert-  M     ler,  I,  afe.  » D  7  cap. 

s  in  Adv.  M  H   I  •<•  Pud,  tf.  SO  Ibid.  1,4. 


82  Cyprian:  The:  Churchman. 

offensive  on  account  of  the  history  of  the  man  who 
gave  it, — a  slave  and  runaway  defrauder,  deported  to 
the  Sardinian  mines  for  his  crimes.23  In  this  decree, 
while  admitting  that  the  rights  of  the  congregation 
and  of  the  martyrs  must  be  preserved,  Callistus 
says  that  the  bishop  is  the  only  possessor  of  the 
power  of  the  keys  in  virtue  of  his  apostolic,  suc- 
cession. This  leads  Tertullian  to  scorn  with  cut- 
ting words  the  assumption  of  the  "apostolicus,"  and 
to  reply  that  as  little  as  the  bishops  have  prophecy 
and  miraculous  power,  so  little  have  they  power  of 
binding  and  loosing,  but  rather  the  prophets.24 
This  union  of  hierarchical  claims  with  loose  dis- 
cipline brought  in  by  the  former  scoundrel  and  thief, 
Bishop  Callistus,  of  Rome,  set  the  pace  for  Roman 
Catholic  history.  It  was  a  principle  of  Callistus  that 
no  bishop  could  be  deposed  even  for  mortal  sin,  and 
that  the  Church  must  necessarily  be  composed  of 
sinners,  as  the  tares  grew  with  the  wheat.25  This 
meant  in  fact  a  complete  transformation  of  the  idea 
of  the  Church.  In  place  of  the  apostolic  thought  of 
the  Church  as  a  body  of  holy  people,  "called  to  be 
saints,"  the  Church  became  an  institution  of  salva- 
tion, in  which  by  an  objective  holy  office  the  work 


23  Hip.  Ref.  9,  12.  24  That  is,  the  Motanist  prophets,  De  Pud. 

ax.     The  Montanists  kept  up  the  old  institution  of  the  prophets,  which  the 
general  Church  had  allowed  to  lapse.  25  Hip.  Ref.  9,  12. 


A  \i:\  ion  in  Discipline.  83 

of  instruction  is  carried  on  for  the  sinful  members 

of  the  society.  "The  Church  is"— not  the  saints,  the 
believing  members  of  Christ— but,  "the  number  of 

the  bishops."*     With  this  elevation  of  the  bishops 

a  the  teachers  and  leaders  of  the  societies,  comes 
also  with  Callistus  the  first  use  of  Matt  xvi,  18,  as 
the  exclusive  property  of  the  Roman  see.  So  hi. 
peremptory  decision  is  the  preparation  for  the 
Roman  primacy,  and  as  von  Schubert  well  says,  the 
scornful  pleasantries  of  Tertullian  when  he  derides 
his  brother  at  Rome, — "pontifex  maximus  is  the 
bishop  «»f  bishops"-7— is  a  "prophecy  oi  the  future." 

*  See  Tertullian,  De  Pud.  21 ;  von  Schubert-Mollcr,  I,  284. 
27  De  Pud.  1. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

CYPRIAN,     THE     LAPSED,     AND     THE 
CHURCH    IN    CARTHAGE. 

Th£  treatment  of  apostates  to  heathenism  at 
Carthage  is  one  of  the  most  difficult  questions  in 
Church  history.  It  has  to  be  worked  out  with  in- 
finite patience  from  the  Epistles  of  Cyprian,  and  to 
arrange  these  epistles  in  order  of  time  is  itself  a  per- 
plexing problem.  Thanks  to  Cyprian  experts  like 
Fechtrup,  Otto  Ritschl,  Benson,  and  Karl  Muller, 
we  have  now  a  light  and  broad  path  through  this 
thorny  thicket.  In  this  chapter  I  shall  follow  the 
guide  of  Professor  Karl  Muller,  formerly  of  Bres- 
lau,  now  of  Tubingen,  who,  I  think,  gives  the  clear- 
est and  most  satisfactory  statement.1 

First,  as  to  terms  used.  Those  who  were  im- 
prisoned or  banished  for  their  faith  were  called 
confessors  by  Cyprian.     When  tortures  were  used, 


1  "  Die   Bussinstitution  in   Karthago  unter  Cyprian,"  in  Zeitschrift 
flir  Kirchengeschichte,  XVI,  1-44,  187-219  (1895). 

84 


Cyprian,  Tin-  Lapsed.  85 

which  was  frequently  done,  especially  the  laceration 
of  the  iron  claw,  under  which  death  sometimes  came 

as  a  welcome  relief,  the  sufferers  were  called  mar- 
tyrs, a  term  which  was  also  used  of  confessors  who 
die  for  any  reason.  Later  Cyprian  employed  the 
same  word  to  designate  those  banished  to  the  mines, 
but  under  the  expectation  of  their  death. 

Now  what  was  the  cause  of  the  trouble  betw< 
Cyprian  and  some  in  his  Church?  The  ordinary 
treatment  of  the  lapsed,  as  we  saw  in  the  last  chap- 
ter, was  simple  exclusion — not  from  the  prayers  and 
sympathies  of  the  Church,  but  from  readmittance. 
But  a  new  element  came  in  when  the  martyrs  and 
l  ven  confessors  gave  to  the  deniers  of  Christ  libelli, 
or  letters  of  peace,  testifying  to  their  penitence,  for- 
giving their  sins  in  effect  if  not  in  form,  and  peti- 
tioning for  their  admission.  It  is  unfortunate  that 
the  papyrus  hunters  have  not  dug  up  a  libellus  of 
this  kind,  so  that  we  do  not  know  exactly  their  tenor. 
(  >n  account  of  the  relation  of  the  martyrs  to  the 
Spirit  referred  to  before,2  it  was  understood  that 
could  give  these  letters  of  forgiveness,  and  that 
such  letters  would  be  favorably  considered.  But 
not  only  did  those  expecting  death  give  the  letters, 


2"I>ie    Himirmitutt^n   in    KarthitfcO    untcr   Cypfiaa,"    in    /ciis^hrift 
fur  kircliengcschichte,  X\  1,  1-44,  >8f  BUf    l^yy, 


86  Cyprian:  The:  Churchman. 

but  non-tortured  confessors  who  did  not  expect 
death.  Later  the  confessors  united  and  gave  letters 
to  all  the  fallen,  to  go  into  effect  in  case  they  (the 
confessors)  died.  If  they  did  not  die,  the  lapsed  in- 
voked the  general  grant  of  peace  given  in  the  name 
of  the  martyr  Paulus.  This  right  of  the  martyrs  to 
forgive  mortal  sin  was  a  survival  of  the  old  power  of 
the  prophets,  and  excited  no  special  comment, — not 
at  least  till  Callistus  struck  at  the  martyrs  in  favor  of 
the  bishops,  so  that  the  custom  soon  came  to  be  for 
readmission  to  be  carried  out  by  the  bishops  and 
congregation  alone,  though  in  Carthage  still  with 
the  co-operation  of  martyrs. 

Cyprian's  legal  training  and  conservative  spirit 
made  him  cling  to  the  martyr's  prerogative.  No 
lapsed  shall  be  taken  in  again  who  is  not  supported 
by  the  intercession  of  martyrs.  And  after  he  had 
determined,  according  to  the  example  of  Rome, 
whose  decision  ordinarily  had  great  weight  with 
him,  that  mortal  sinners  could  be  received  again,  he 
made  the  condition  that  they  must  show  a  martyr's 
letter.  But  this  at  first  only  had  reference  to  those 
lapsed  who  were  sick  unto  death.  For  the  others 
Cyprian  said  that  they  must  wait  until  the  bishops 
were  back  from  their  hiding  places  and  could  hold 
a  council  in  safety,  when  they  would  decide  what 


Cyprian,  the  Lapsed.  87 

weight  would  be  accorded  to  the  martyrs'  and  con- 
fessors' letters  to  the  general  run  of  the  lapsed 
In  this  the  manyrs  agreed    It  does  not  appear 

(contrary   to    Ritschl)    that   Cyprian   and   the   niar- 

tyra  were  fundamentally  at  variance,  or  that  the  lat- 
ter expected  letters  to  be  immediately  acted  upon; 
but  rather  that  they  should  wait  till  the  persecution 
was  over,  the  lapsed  assembled,  and  investigation 
made  into  each  case.  The  old  Callistian  emphasis 
on  the  bishop  was  thus  completely  at  home  in  Car- 
thage. What  Cyprian  is  anxious  for  is  not  that  the 
martyrs  should  not  have  all  their  rights,  but  that 
moral  discipline  should  be  guarded.  When  the  con- 
fessors communicate  to  Cyprian  (Ep.  23  [16]) 
that  they  have  granted  peace  to  all  the  lapsed,  he 
does  not  see  in  that  a  slap  at  himself,  but  he  fears 
a  despising  of  his  exhortations  to  moderation  in  re- 
gard to  libelli  and  of  evangelical  principle  in  re- 
gard to  discipline.  Lucian,  the  principal  confessor, 
does  not  know  the  Holy  Scriptures  (Ep.  27 
[22] ), — right  principles  as  to  discipline.  The  thing 
will   cause  hate   and   difficulties   among  the  lapsed, 

and  the  bishop's  strictures  and  reserve  will  be 

in  bad  contrast  to  the  large-heartedness  of  the  con- 
fessors. It  is  only  the  universality  with  which  peace- 
is  there  given  which  appears  tu  Cyprian  the  danger: 


88  Cyprian:  The:  Churchman. 

it  threatens  to  tear  discipline  to  pieces  and  endan- 
gers the  bishop's  moral  position.  The  Confessors 
do  not  threaten  in  Ep.  23  (16)  to  withdraw  com- 
munion from  Cyprian,  nor  do  they  understand  any- 
thing more  than  that  the  bishops  must  act  on 
their  pardons  after  sufficient  penance  on  the  part  of 
the  lapsed,  and  that  these  pardons  can  come  into 
force  only  at  the  end  of  the  persecution.  Nor  do 
they  blame  him  for  his  flight.3  The  confessors  had 
never  taken  up  churchly  communion  with  the  fallen, 
to  whom  they  had  granted  peace.  The  bishops  must 
first  speak,  then  comes  peace. 

Now  what  was  the  attitude  of  the  presbyters  in 
Carthage  to  this  question  ?  Without  waiting  for  the 
decision  of  the  bishops,  these,  on  the  strength  of 
the  peace  letters  of  the  martyrs,  opened  communion 
immediately  with  the  lapsed.4  Was  this  due  to  the 
letter  of  the  Roman  presbyters  to  their  Carthaginian 
colleagues,5  as  Ritschl  and  Harnack  think?  No. 
The  old  view  is  not  well  founded  that  a  sharp  oppo- 
sition existed  between  the  presbyters  as  a  whole  and 
their  bishop.  What  happened  was  that  four  presby- 
ters6 wrote  to  Cyprian  in  the  first  stage  of  the  per- 
secution   (between   February   and  April,   250)    to 

3  See  Eps.  26  (17)  and  27  (22)  for  Cyprian's  reply. 

4  Ep.  15  (10),  1 ;   16  (9) :  2,  3;   17  (11),  2.  5  Ep.  8  (2). 
6  Donatus,  Fortunatus,  Novatus,  and   Gordius. 


Cyprian,  thk  Laps&x  So 

move  him  to  show  mildness  to  the  fallen,  and  to 
give  peace  anyhow  to  the  dying.  Cyprian  did  not 
comply.7    Soon  after  came  the  second  I  the 

anion  when  there  was  a  possibility  to  help  the 
fallen  by  the  martyrs.  Now  a  part  oi  the  presbyters 
take  advantage  of  this,  and  on  their  own  motion 
grant  Church  communion  to  the  lapsed  who  possess 
martyr's  certificates  without  waiting  for  the  de- 
cision of  the  bishop.  That  is,  at  the  daily  offering 
(  what  we  call  the  Lord's  Supper)  they  receive  their 
present  their  offerings  for  them,  and  let  them 
take  part  in  their  whole  celehration  and  in  the 
Kncharistic  meal.8 

The  situation  becomes  clearer  when  we  look  at 
Alexandria.  There  the  martyrs  gave  prayer  and 
table  communion  to  the  penitent  lapsed,  and  Bishop 
Dionysins  asks  his  Antioch  colleague  whether  he 
will  indorse  this.9  There  (in  Alexandria)  the 
1  ishop  had  no  right  to  decide  the  case  himself.    The 

niaityr-libdlus  uffident    The  bishop  followed 

of  course.     This  gives  us  a  clear  view 

of  the  old   Church  practice.     There  was   DO   formal 

solemn  declaration  of  the  martyrs  and  of  other 
pneumatics;  they   simply   get  the  conviction  that 


'  i  |    it      ,  .4.  sod  other  passage*.     See 

Muller,  p.  85,  note  2. 


90  Cyprian:  The  Churchman. 

God  has  forgiven  the  penitent  sinners,  and  so  com- 
munion was  naturally  opened  to  them.10 

Compare  now  the  behavior  of  the  Carthaginian 
presbyter's.  They  disown  the  right  of  the  bishop  to 
decide,  and  took  it  upon  themselves.  Their  be- 
havior is  therefore  a  dishonor  to  the  episcopate,  and 
a  despisal  of  his  priesthood  and  of  his  chair.11 
That  is,  they  act  as  was  customary  at  Alexandria 
at  that  time.  But  their  behavior  appears  in  a  dif- 
ferent light  to  Cyprian,  because  the  right  of  the 
bishop  had  developed  otherwise  in  Carthage  than 
it  had  in  Alexandria.  Callistus's  exaltation  of  the 
bishop  had  struck  home  more  deeply  in  Carthage. 
But  the  presbyters  at  length  come  around.  They 
break  off  communion  with  the  lapsed.12  They  con- 
fess that  their  decision  is  only  for  the  time  being, 
and  that  in  any  case  the  bishop  had  to  decide.  The 
opposition  therefore  could  not  have  been  as  heavy 
as  it  has  been  represented.  At  the  bottom  they  did 
not  oppose  Cyprian's  episcopal  rights  as  he  con- 
ceived them.  They  only  waived  them  at  the  start 
If  they  belonged  to  an  older  generation  who  had 
known  other  ways  in  the  persecution  of  Septimius 
Severus  (reigned  193-211),  their  conduct  is  quite 
natural. 


10  Sohm  agrees  with  this.  11  Ep.  17  (11).  12  Ep.  20  (14),  2/ 


Cyprian,  tin:  Lapsed,  91 

Still  there  were  presbyters  whose  opposition 
went  deeper— especially  Fortunatus  and  Nbvatns. 
For  the  latter,  who  was  on  the  lax  side  at  Carthage 
and  the  strict  side  in  Rome,  it  was  probably  opj 
tion  to  Cyprian  himself.18  They  even  wrote  to 
Rome  to  urge  denial  of  all  communion  to  Cyprian.1*  ' 
(  yprian  defends  himself  to  the  satisfaction,  it  seems 
to  me,  of  all  impartial  students.15 

Probably  Novatus  was  the  leading  spirit  in  this 
irreconcilable  opposition,  who  worked  on  the  sym- 
pathies of  his  colleagues  for  former  customs, — 
those  "good  old  times,"'  perhaps,  when  the  bishops 
did  not  loom  so  high. 

We  come  now  to  the  lapsed.  They  stormed  the 
confessors  and  martyrs,  as  we  have  seen,  and  re- 
ceived libelli  by  the  thousand.  But  their  hopes  were 
all  dashed  to  the  ground  when  the  presbyters  with- 
drew the  communion  they  had  first  -ranted.  This 
Created  a  critical  situation.     All  the  lapsed  without 

exception  had  received  letters  of  peace  from  the 
confessors, — a  gross  abuse  of  privilege.  The  lapsed 
cried  aloud  for  the  communion  promised.     In  the 

provinces  the  ;  was  so  great  that  the  bishops 

gave  in.  at  least  in  part     In  Carthage  the  clergy 


•rayul  of  tl..  :'.>•  43    3/ 

14  If  w<  :  ;>rcl  wli.il  i|  btt  k   ot    \  pstlc  I 

15  Ep.  20  ,14. . 


92  Cyprian:  Th£  Churchman. 

wavered.  Cyprian  must  meet  them  half  way.  In- 
formed of  the  difficult  position  of  the  clergy,  Cyprian 
concluded  to  concede  something.  On  his  own  ini- 
tiative he  wrote  saying  that  in  the  prospect  of  death 
peace  could  be  granted  to  those  who  could  show 
martyr's  certificates,  that  is,  they  would  be  received 
into  full  communion  with  the  Church.16  That  was 
the  standpoint  that  the  Roman  society  had  taken  at 
the  beginning  of  the  persecution,  only  without  hav- 
ing regard  to  martyr's  certificates.  In  fact,  in 
Rome  the  martyrs  and  confessors  would  have  noth- 
ing to  do  with  the  lapsed. 

Cyprian  made  no  further  concessions,  the  Afri- 
can bishops  assented  to  his  principles,  Rome  came 
out  in  the  same  way,  and  most  of  the  lapsed  quieted 
themselves.17  A  part,  however,  remained  defiant. 
The  martyr  Paul  had  given  them  peace ;  they  had  it 
therefore  already  in  heaven ;  let  the  Church  give  it 
also,  to  which  they  already  belonged  in  a  true 
sense.18  It  will  be  seen  from  this  that  if  the  dis- 
satisfied lapsed  attach  themselves  to  the  dissatisfied 
presbyters,  we  have  the  materials  for  a  new  Church 
in  Carthage. 

And  so  we  come  to  the  so-called  schism  of  Feli- 
cissimus, — a  dark  corner  in  Church  history,  though 


16  £p.  18  (i»).  17  32  (31),  2.  18  33  (26);  35  (28);  and  36  (29),  1. 


Cyprian,  tiik  Lapsed.  93 

Karl  MulleT  has  thrown  welcome  light  into  it.  About 

March,  251,  the  persecution  over,  Cyprian  prepared 

1  back  to  Carthage,    The  confessors  had  not  yet 

dared  to  assemble  in  full  public  meeting.  Only 
three  presbyters  are  faithful  from  Cyprian's  point 

of  view;  the  others  are  either  scattered  or  as  un- 
trustworthy as  a  part  of  the  society.  Some  of  the 
lapsed  are  still  in  revolt.  Cyprian  sends  therefore  a 
commission  of  two  bishops  and  one  or  two  Cartha- 
ginian presbyters  to  attend  to  some  things  before 
he  ventures  himself.  They  are  to  distribute  finan- 
cial help  from  the  Church  treasury  to  the  needy, 
particularly  to  those  who  need  help  in  business, 
making  careful  inquiry  as  to  conditions,  worthiness, 
etc.  They  are  also  to  note  the  able  and  faithful  in 
the  Church,  and  those  who  are  eligible  to  Church 
office.  Xo  sooner  is  the  commission  at  work  than 
Felicissimus  steps  out  against  them  and  threatens 
the  brethren  who  applied  for  aid.  that,  if  they  take 
the  money  and  obey  the  bishops,  he  would  not  per- 
mit them  to  communicate  even  on  deathbed.  A 
part  then  fell  back,  but  the  majority  took  the  money. 

Why    thi>    passionate    interference    of    Felid 
mus?    And  why  did  a  part  of  the  society  hold  with 
him? 

With  the  expected  return  of  the  bishop  it  was 


94  Cyprian:  Thk  Churchman. 

a  fitting  time  for  the  opposition  to  come  to  a  head 
Otherwise  the  investigations  of  the  commission 
might  overawe  and  their  subventions  win.  Beside?, 
as  soon  as  Cyprian  returns,  he  will  begin  a  careful 
inquiry  into  each  case  of  the  lapsed.  Will  this  in- 
vestigation be  favorable  ?  Will  those  who  rushed  to 
the  tribunals  to  deny  Christ  shine  well  beside  those 
who  were  overcome  by  torture?  But  both  classes 
had  already  received  letters  of  peace  from  the  mar- 
tyrs or  in  their  name.  Look  at  the  hardness  of  the 
bishop  in  going  behind  the  letters  to  weigh  each 
case !  This  is  the  moment,  therefore,  to  assert  their 
rights,  and  standing  on  the  prerogative  of  the  mar- 
tyrs, claim  their  place  in  the  Church. 

It  is  probable  that  Felicissimus  was  only  a 
spokesman  for  the  five  presbyters  who  are  always 
seen  at  his  side.  And  as  a  prominent  layman — 
there  is  no  evidence  for  the  common  idea  that  he 
was  a  deacon  at  this  time — it  may  have  been  sup- 
posed that  he  would  influence  the  lay  members  to 
revolt.  Cyprian  acted  with  promptness.  He  sent 
word  to  the  commission  to  exclude  Felicissimus,  an- 
other layman,  Augendus,  and  any  others  who  held 
with  them,  from  the  Church.  This  they  did.  There- 
fore the  schism. 

Hitherto  it  had  been  largely  a  layman's  move- 


Cyprian,  tih;  Lapsed,  95 

meat  Now  the  five  presbyters  came  out  boldl 
the  side  of  Felicissimus,  some  of  whom  had  com- 
municated with  the  lapsed.  They  now  open  the 
doors  of  communion  to  this  class.  They  lead  the 
lapsed  to  destruction,  says  Cyprian.11  They  slight 
the  decree  of  Cyprian  and  of  the  Roman  clergy  and. 
coin'  -  well  as  all  the  bishops  of  tins  and  of 

the  other  side  of  the  sea.  They  cr>;ite  a  new  sacri- 
legious tradition.  They  erect  another  altar,  a  new 
priesthood.  So  they  separate  themselves  from  the 
Church,  for  in  it  is  only  one  altar,  that  of  the 
bishop.  The  latter  need  not  exclude  them:  they 
have  excluded  themselves  before  all  the  world. 

Did  the  presbyters  and  Felicissimus  so  think? 
Evidently  not.  After  the  martyrs  have  granted  for- 
giveness to  the  penitent  lapsed,  they  really  have 
peace  in  heaven,  and  no  bishop  is  justified  in  for- 
bidding another  to  hold  communion  with  them. 
That  is,  the  presbyters  really  place  themselves  upon 
the  old  standpoint  of  the  precatholic  time  when  the 
charismatic  ministry,  the  prophets  and  apostles,  who 
spoke  in  the  Holy  Ghost,  Were  Still  living  for© 
the  world.  Their  voice  was  now  heard,  so  to  speak, 
in  the  martyrs,  who  had  shown  by  their  heroic  t<  - 
timony    that    they    had    .succeeded    to    the    spiritual 


lfl  Ep.    ; 


96  Cyprian:  The  Churchman. 

power  of  apostles.  Whatsoever  they  bind  or  loose 
on  earth  is  bound  or  loosed  in  heaven.  Cyprian's 
attempt  to  tie  this  prerogative  to  an  official  class, 
the  bishops,  evidently  made  no  impression  on  some 
of  the  older  generation  in  Carthage.  It  is  the  old 
story  of  the  prophet  against  the  priest.  But  one 
part  was  struggling  against,  the  other  for,  the  cur- 
rent of  the  age,  and  that  makes  all  the  difference  in 
the  world  as  to  success  or  failure,  though  not  as  to 
right  or  wrong. 

But  the  new  Church  continued.  Felicissimus 
was  ordained  deacon.  Cyprian  returned  on  or  after 
Easter,  251,  and  therewith  ceases  his  correspondence 
with  the  society.  A  great  synod  was  held  in  Car- 
thage in  251  to  deliberate  on  the  question.  It  ex- 
communicated Felicissimus  and  the  five  presbyters, 
and  as  to  the  lapsed  decided  (1)  that  there  should 
be  a  careful  examination  of  each  case;  (2)  that  the 
lapsed  who  had  not  sacrificed,  such,  for  instance,  as 
the  thurfficati  or  these  who  only  burned  or  threw 
incense  to  the  emperor's  image  or  at  the  altars  of  the 
gods,  and  such  as  had  bought  certificates  from  the 
officers, — that  these  could  be  restored  to  full  mem- 
bership after  penance  and  public  application  to  the 
bishop;  (3)  that  the  sacriiicati  should  be  restored 
at  the  hour  of  death,  if  they  continued  penitent;  (4) 


prian,  tiik  Lapsed.  97 

but  that  those  who  showed  penitence  only  in  sick- 

or  at  approaching  death  Bhould  be  refuse 
This  was  certainly  a  sensible  middle  way. — keep- 
ing something  of  the  former  strictness,  and  yet  con- 
ceding a  goo «1  deal  to  the  actual  facts  and  to  the 
necessities  of  souls.  It  will  be  noticed  that  the 
bishop's  prerogative  is  fully  secured,  and  that  the 
martyr's  libelli  arc  left  out  in  the  cold.  The  day 
of  the  bishop  had  full}'  come. 

Why  this  strictness  to  those  who  sacrificed,  how- 
ever, and  tenderness  to  the  rest  of  the  lapsed?  Were 
they  sinners  above  all  others?  It  was  impossible 
that  a  compromise  like  that,  however  well  meaning 
and  on  the  whole  just,  should  stand,  especially  in  a 
time  when  a  fresh  persecution  might  at  any  moment 
bring  penitent  lapsed  to  the  jaws  of  death.  The 
Church  must  either  £0  back  to  the  second  century 
conception  of  remissible  and  irrcmissible  sins,  or  L,ro 
back  farther  to  the  apostolic  conception  of  the  par- 
donableness  of  all  sins,  except  such  as  from  their 
nature  reveal  a  heart  deliberately  and  irrecoverably 
given  t<>  evil.-1  But  the  Church  does  not  know  the 
heart,  and  all  she  can  act  on  is  the  presumption  of 
genuineness  of  the  penitence.  The  main  ques- 
tion with  the  Christian  is  not.  Has  he  sinned'     The 

SI  Sec  Matt,  xii,  31-j  ;   I 

7 


98  Cyprian:  The;  Churchman. 

affirmative  may  be  assumed,  at  least  for  sins  of 
thought,  neglect,  inadvertence.  The  real  question 
is,  Is  he  truly  penitent?  The  Church  can  not  go 
back  of  that  record,  even  if  she  has  to  follow  her 
Master  in  His  staggering  severities.22  We  need  not 
be  surprised,  therefore,  if  a  year  or  two  later  a 
second  synod,  in  view  of  a  threatening  persecution, 
gave  peace  to  all  the  lapsed,  who  had  kept  them- 
selves to  the  Church  and  had  faithfully  done  pen- 
ance. This  was  coming  round  to  the  position  of 
the  presbyters  and  Felicissimus,  though  for  another 
reason  and  by  another  road.  But  these  continued 
their  independent  action,  had  Fortunatus  conse- 
crated bishop  of  Carthage,  sent  an  embassy  to  Rome 
to  win  recognition  there,  and  kept  up  their  Church 
for  some  time.  How  long  we  do  not  know.  The 
movement  had  no  reason  for  existence  after  the  ac- 
tion of  the  second  Cyprianic  council,  and  apparently- 
died  a  natural  death  soon  after  that.  With  such  a 
bishop  as  Cyprian  to  pass  on  questions  of  the  lapsed, 
it  was  just  as  well  that  it  died. 

Xow  as  to  the  results.  We  see  how  Cyprian 
changed.  First,  he  was  disinclined  to  grant  peace 
to  the  lapsed.  Then  he  was  willing  to  grant  it  to 
the  dying  who  had  martyr's  letters.      After  that 


22  Matt,  xviii,  22. 


CS  l'KIAN,    'III!;    I.AI'SI.I).  99 

when  his  first  council  left  martyrs  and  confei 
entirely  out  of  the  account,  and  decided  that  whole 
i*  lapsed  should  have  peace  during  life, 

Cyprian  agreed,  as  lie  did  finally  when  the  second 

council  decided  that  all  could  have  peace.     Why 

Evidently  it  was  because  each  advance 
left  the  bishop  more  and  more  in  possession  of  the 
field. 

Notice  the  development  of  the  Church  generally. 
Formerly  the  martyrs  had  the  right  to  give  com- 
munion to  those  whose  sins  they  forgave,  or  of 
whom  they  said,  in  virtue  of  their  possession  of  the 
Spirit,  that  ()(n\  had  forgiven.  But  that  did  not 
compel  the  society  to  take  in  the  offender,  it  only 
enabled  it  to  do  so.  Where  the  bishop  had  to  de- 
cide as  to  the  participation  in  the  Eucharistic  sacri- 
fice, no  sinner  could  come  to  that  offering  without 
his  consent.  (Customs  may  have  varied  more  or 
less  in  different  cities.)  But  that  did  not  mean  that 
the  bishop  had  the  initiative  alone,  and  that  the 
judgment  of  a  martyr  might  remain  in  suspense. 
The  society  itself  <>r  a  part  of  it  could  grant  com- 
munion to  a  fallen  brother  «>n  a  martyr's  claim,  and 
with  their  weight  press  the  bishop  to  a  favorable  ac- 
tion.     Only    the    last    decision    remained    with    the 

bishop,  because  he  presided  at  the  offering. 


ioo  Cyprian:  The:  Churchman. 

In  all  this  Callistus,  as  far  as  we  know,  was  the 
first  to  make  a  change.  He  left  the  martyrs  out, 
and  shoved  in  between  them  and  the  society  the 
decision  of  the  bishop.  Their  claim  has  no  power 
till  the  bishop  indorses  it.  This  principle  was 
adopted  at  once  in  the  West,  at  least  in  Carthage. 
Still  some  sections  in  the  Church  held  to  the  old 
practice,  as  the  presbyters  in  Carthage,  and  the 
lapsed  grasped  so  eagerly  at  it  that  they  expected 
the  bishop  and  the  society  without  more  ado  to 
govern  themselves  according  to  the  letters  of  the 
martyrs.  But  their  fate  was  sealed,  because  the  lat- 
ter never  once  put  in  an  absolute  claim  of  deciding 
their  admission.  That  they  left  to  the  bishops  and 
congregation. 

Cyprian  was  victor.  He  advances,  martyrs  dis- 
appear, the  bishop  alone  is  left.  Finally,  the  bishop 
can  go  his  own  way,  if  necessary,  even  in  spite  of  the 
will  of  the  congregation.  With  that  is  reached  the 
first  step  that  can  be  called  Catholic  in  the  full  sense. 
History  is  being  made  with  a  vengeance.  No  mor- 
tal sin  excludes :  adultery,  murder,  apostasy — all  can 
be  fixed  up  in  the  regular  penitential  institution  of 
the  Church. 

In  the  East,  however,  the  old  conditions  re- 
mained for  some  time.     In  Alexandria,  about  250, 


Cyprian,  thk  Lapsed.  ioi 

the  bishop  had  do  clearly  defined  right  to  visi  tin- 
ion  or  pardon  of  a  martyr,  nor  was  it  CUS- 
.ry.  As  |ate  as  the  Diocletian  persecution 
(  303  fT)  the  martyrs  played  a  similar  role  in  that 
city,  as  they  did  in  Carthage  in  250.  But  the-' 
only  unessential  fragments  of  a  time  forever  Bown.w 


Prof.  Karl  Miiller,  whom  I  have  followed  in  this  exposition.     Set 
0    te,    p.  84. 


CHAPTER  IX. 
THE  NOVATIAN  CHURCH. 

If  the  Felicissimus  movement  in  Carthage, 
growing  out  of  the  disciplinary  and  penitential  con- 
troversy in  which  Cyprian  had  such  a  large  share, 
came  to  nothing,  so  far  as  a  separate  Church  was 
concerned,  that  can  not  be  said  of  a  movement  that 
sprang  from  the  same  cause  in  Rome,  of  which  the 
letters  of  Cyprian  are  our  chief  contemporary  in- 
formation. That  spread  from  Rome  west  to  Spain 
and  east  to  Syria,  and  continued  a  separate  and  dis- 
tinct Church  life  Catholic  in  essentials  and  ortho- 
dox for  five  centuries.  This  had  so  close  a  relation 
to  movements  in  which  Cyprian  was  a  chief  actor 
that  a  brief  statement  concerning  it  is  in  place.  It 
is  one  of  the  most  significant  outgrowths  of  the 
Cyprianic  age. 

We  have  already  seen  that  in  the  second  and 
early  part  of  the  third  century  it  was  customary  to 
exclude  definitely  and  finally  from  the  Church  those 
guilty  of  idolatry,  adultery,  and  related  sins,  and 
murder,  reserving  for  the  penitents  of  this  class  the 
102 


Tin;  Xoyatian  Church.  103 

mercy  of  God  in  the  next  world  This  shows  clearly 
that  at  that  time  the  Church  was  not  thought  of  as 
coextensive  with  salvation;  that  is,  one  might  be 

saved  and  yet  not  be  a  member  of  the  Church.  This 
strict  exclusion  was  broken  up  by  the  Roman  bishop, 
CallistUS  (218-23),  who  made  an  exception  of  sins 
of  impurity,  though  alleviations  were  permitted  by 

the  custom  of  honoring  martyrs'  intercessions  and 
forgiveness.     It  is  evident  that   in   Cyprian's  time 
tution  for  gross  sins  of  the  flesh  was  not  un- 
common.1    One  of  the  consequences  of  Callistus's 

ness  was  the  separate  Church  of  Ilippolytus 
in  Rome.  But  as  the  I  lippolytan  Church  had  al- 
ready amalgamated  with  the  general  Church  before 
250,  there  had  probably  been  a  sharpening  of  dis- 
cipline by  Callistus's  successors.  This  does  not- 
mean  that  fleshly  sinners  wrere  finally  excluded  in 
Rome,  for  absolution  for  such  sins  was  no  longer 
a  matter  of  controversy  there.  As  to  idolatry — that 
was  another  matter. 

The  Decian  persecution  change- 1  the  whole  sit- 
uation. The  number  of  the  lapsed  was  so  great  that 
t<»  keep  up  the  old  rule  imperiled  the  existenO 

congregations.    Even  Tertullian  Bcemed  to  feel  that 

over  strictness  in  Mmir  cases  here  might  be  unjust, 


l  Ep.  ^  6i  ;  s 


104  Cyprian:  The:  Churchman. 

for  in  torture  one  might  deny  the  faith  as  it  were 
involuntarily,  while  keeping  it  unspotted  in  his 
heart.2  Besides,  the  doctrine  of  the  Church  de- 
manded a  change.  If  the  Church  is  the  hierarchy, 
''outside  of  which  there  is  no  salvation,"  then  the 
old  belief  is  deceptive  that  God  could  receive  the 
penitent  sinner  to  grace  to  whom  the  Church  had 
denied  absolution.  There  is  no  doubt  that  the 
Decian  persecution  greatly  helped  this  theory. 
Would  it  be  merciful  to  relegate  vast  masses  of 
penitents  to  the  uncovenanted  mercies  of  God,  when 
their  reception  again  into  the  Church  might  make 
their  salvation  certain  ?  Besides,  it  was  the  custom 
almost  universal  in  250  to  give  remission  just  be- 
fore death.  Why  not  make  assurance  doubly  sure  ? 
Who  knows  when  death  may  come  ?  Why  keep  the 
penitent  in  this  miserable  uncertainty?  If  the 
Church  forgives,  they  are  forgiven.  "The  longing 
of  the  lapsed  after  reconciliation,  the  insecurity  as  to 
salvation  where  Churchly  absolution  failed,  even 
with  earnest  penitence,3  shows  most  distinctly  that 
the  Church  was  forced  by  her  laity  to  hold  herself 
as  the  indispensable  condition  of  salvation."4     It 


2  De  Pud.  22.  3  Eus.  6,  44. 

4  Harnack,  art.  on  Novatianism  in  the  Hauck-Herzog,  3.  Aufl.  XIV, 
223-42  (1904).  Harnack  has  gone  into  this  matter  with  characteristic  Ger- 
man thoroughness,  but  with  his  own  lucidity,  and  I  follow  his  conclusions 
in  this  chapter. 


Tin:  Novatian  Church.  105 

was  carrying  this  theory  out  to  its  logical  result,  the 
theory  that  the  Church,  through  her  officers,  has 

the  power  of  the  keys,  that  she  opens  or  shuts  the 
kingdom  of  heaven,  and  that  only  those  to  whom 
she  opens  go  in, — it  was  this  thoroughly  Cyprianic 
theory  which  at  the  bottom  caused  by  way  of  pro- 
test the  great  Nbvatian  Church. 

Xovatian  was  a  presbyter  of  the  Roman 
Church,  one  of  the  holiest  and  ablest  of  her  clergy. 
He  was  the  only  theologian  of  the  Roman  Church 
for  three  centuries.  He  was  learned,  eloquent,  and 
a  thinker,  and  it  has  been  left  to  recent  research  to 
restore  to  his  name  some  books  which  Catholic 
copyists  later  either  could  not  or  would  not  assign 
to  their  real  author — him  whom  they  looked  upon  as 
a  schismatic — but  knew  it  was  perfectly  safe  to 
father  upon  Cyprian.  Could  an  arch-schismatic 
write  such  books  as  those  on  the  "Spectacles,"  on 
"Modesty,"  on  the  "Praise  of  Martyrdom,"  on  the 
"Jews?"  Horrors!  Never  I  Tut  them  down  to 
Cyprian!  The  poverty  of  the  Roman  Church  in 
learning  and  theological  power  is  a  striking  fact  in 
the  history  of  the  early  Church.    Her  uninstructed 

presbyters     when    they    write    letters    to     Can! 
printed  in  Cyprian,  ran  nol  command  decent  Latin. 

Therefore  during  the  fifteen  months'  vacancy  in  the 


106  Cyprian:  The  Churchman. 

chair  after  the  martyrdom  of  Fabian  (January  20, 
250),  when  the  government  of  the  Church  reverted 
according  to  the  primitive  custom  to  the  presbyters 
with  the  laity,  their  literary  spokesman  was  Nova- 
tian.  He  conducted  the  correspondence  of  the  so- 
ciety. "A  maintainer  of  the  Gospel  and  of  Christ," 
Cyprian  scornfully  calls  him — Cyprian  was  a  dealer 
in  sarcasm — after  he  became  the  leader  of  an  inde- 
pendent Church.5  His  conduct  was  blameless,  and 
even  his  enemies  can  charge  nothing  against  him. 
The  presbyter  college  in  Rome,  when  not  decimated 
by  persecution,  consisted  of  fifty-three  persons,6 
and  at  their  head  in  moral  weight  after  the  death  of 
Fabian  stood  Novatian,  while  of  their  next  bishop, 
Cornelius,  we  hear  nothing. 

We  have  three  letters  of  the  Roman  presbyters 
in  Cyprian  (other  letters  are  lost),  of  which  two 
are  by  Novatian.7  In  the  first  it  is  said  that  it  is 
the  custom  to  give  absolution  to  the  sick  penitent 
lapsed,  a  custom  which  Cyprian  now  follows  im- 
plicitly,8 though  at  first  he  was  stricter.  In  Epistle 
30,  written  by  Novatian,  the  practice  followed  by 
Cyprian  is  praised,  and,  with  all  strictness  against 
the  libellatici,  the  possibility  of  a  reception  again 


6  Ep.  44  (4c),  3.  6  Eus.  6 :  43,  11.  7  Eps.  8  (2)  in  uncouth  Latin, 

and  30  and  36  (29)  by  Novatian.        8  See  Eps.  18  (12);  19  (13);  20  (14),  3. 


Tin:  Novatian  Church.  107 

into  the  Church  is  not  cut  off.  When  peace  is  re- 
stored, the  matter  of  the  lapsed  shall  be  treated  in 
a  great  council.  Until  that  time  let  them  show  a 
proper  penitence.  "We  will  pray  that  upon  the 
penitence  of  the  lapsed  the  effect  of  the  pardon  shall 
follow,  and  that  thev  in  knowledge  of  their  trans- 
gression shall  prove  their  patience  in  the  mean- 
tune."1'  This  middle  path,  he  says,  we  have  fol- 
lowed in  common  with  some  neighboring  bishops 
and  those  present  in  Rome.  No  new  practice  shall 
be  introduced,  not  at  least  till  a  bishop  is  elected. 
In  the  other  epistle,  Xovatian  shows  perfect  agree- 
ment with  Cyprian,  and  strongly  supports  him  in 
his  conflict  with  lax  confessors  and  their  letters  of 
peace.  So  the  letters  which  Cyprian  sends  to  Roman 
confessors  show  harmony  both  in  Rome  itself  and 
between  Cyprian  and  Rome.10  Up  to  the  beginning 
of  spring,  251,  therefore,  there  was  no  sign  of  an 
independent  Church  in  Rome.  While  Xovatian 
was  characterized  by  the  moral  earnestness  and  de- 
cision with  which  he  asserted  evangelical  vigor  and 
a  robust  faith,  he  did  not  differ  materially  from 
Cyprian  and  the  Church  of  his  time  as  to  dealing 
with  the  lapsed 

I. ike  a  thunderbolt  out  of  a  clear  skv  all  this  is 


8  Ep.  30,  0.  1"  kf ...- 


108  Cyprian:  The;  Churchman. 

changed.  In  March,  251,  after  the  Decian  perse- 
cution stopped,  Cornelius,  a  novice  who  had  been 
clothed  with  all  the  clerical  offices  one  after  the 
other,  was  elected  bishop  of  Rome  by  the  majority. 
But  the  minority,  consisting  among  others  of  at 
least  five  presbyters  and  the  most  honored  con- 
fessors, immediately  elected  Novatian  bishop,  and 
had  him  ordained  according  to  the  ordinary  cus- 
tom by  three  bishops.  There  we  have  the  start  of 
the  second  independent  Catholic  Church  in  Rome.11 
Why  was  this? 

It  has  been  shown  by  Harnack  that  formally  and 
on  the  surface  the  difference  that  caused  the  move- 
ment was  a  purely  personal  one.  The  presbyters 
and  confessors  simply  did  not  like  Cornelius;  they 
distrusted  him ;  they  had  no  respect  for  him.  But 
they  had  perfect  confidence  in  Novatian  and  re- 
spected him  profoundly.  It  has  been  one  of  the 
frequent  mistakes  revealed  by  Church  history, — 
the  election  of  men  to  high  office  who  do  not  com- 
mand the  entire  respect  of  all  whose  duty  calls  them 
to  judge. 


11  The  view  of  some  old  Protestant  writers  and  some  modern  Baptists 
that  the  Novatian  Church  was  a  reaction  in  favor  of  primitive  Christianity 
is  not  well  founded.  As  to  moral  discipline,  it  was  stricter  than  the  general 
Church,  and  its  idea  as  to  the  power  of  the  keys  more  spiritual;  but  in 
nearly  all  its  customs  and  doctrines  it  did  not  differ  one  iota  from  the  main 
Church.  This  is  admitted  by  the  eminent  Baptist  scholar,  Prof.  Albert 
Henry  Newman,  in  his  Church  History,  I,  207  (1900). 


Tin:  Novatian  Church.  109 

But  the  personal  objection  was  unconsciously 
mixed  up  with  another  party  personal,  partly 
theoretical.  During  the  persecution  and  after.  Cor- 
nelius's behavior  was  not  entirely  above  suspicion. 

Keen  if  the  accusation  that  he  was  a  libcllaticus  was 
unfounded,  he  had  been  in  communion  with  bishops 
who  had  offered  to  idols,  especially  with  Trophi- 
mus,  who  had  given  up  strict  discipline.12  Corne- 
lius, therefore,  notoriously  represented  a  lax  disci- 
pline, and  he  was  therefore  unacceptable  to  the 
stricter  members  of  the  society.  The  majority 
elected  him  (as  Harnack  well  says)  in  the  interest 
of  self-preservation,  believing  that  he  would  govern 
mildly.  It  is  evident  also  that  Novatian  was  not 
himself  the  inciter  to  the  second  Church, — but  was 
sed  into  it.  "If  thou  against  thy  will,"  says 
Dionysius  of  Alexandria  in  his  letter  to  him,  "as 
thou  sayest,  have  been  carried  along,  then  prove  it 
by  coming  freely  back  again."'13  More  easily  said 
than  done.  The  matter  went  deeper  than  Dionysius 
thought.  Over  against  the  threatening  loose  rule 
ruder  the  slippery  Cornelius,  Xovatian  decided  to 
emphasize  again  the  old  penitential  discipline,  and 
to  admit  exceptions  no  more.  Starting  with  per- 
sonal  dislike,  the  thing  went  forward  to  material 


12  Ep.  55  '5*). l0-  13  Eus-  r,»  •* 


no  Cyprian:  The  Churchman. 

differences.  It  was  an  eternal  lesson  to  the  Church 
to  elect  men  as  pastors  and  bishops  upon  whom  all 
can  unite  in  respect  and  love.  ''If  one  considers/' 
says  Harnack,  "how  for  a  long  time  in  the  East  and 
West  the  lax  and  strict  practice  existed  peacefully 
together  (even  after  the  Novatian  Church)  without 
any  schism  until  far  on  into  the  fourth  century  and 
even  longer,  if  we  remember  that  at  the  beginning 
Cyprian  always  blames  the  fact  of  the  schism  not 
the  theory  of  the  schismatics,  one  can  not  doubt 
that  the  differences  would  have  been  borne  with 
farther  by  both  sides  if  they  had  not  been  poisoned 
in  one  and  the  same  congregation  by  irreconcilable 
opposition  between  personalities."14  On  the  other 
hand,  as  Harnack  admits,  the  range  which  the  No- 
vatian movement  took  and  its  long  duration  show 
that  the  fundamental  differences  in  principle  were 
after  all  the  chief  ones. 

Now  what  attitude  did  Cyprian  take  to  this 
movement  ?  1^  it  is  evident  that  the  lofty  character 
and  theological  attainments  of  Novatian  and  the 
naturally  rather  strict  views  of  the  Carthaginian 
would  have  won  him  completely  to  Novatian's  side 
if  it  had  not  been  for  two  things.  The  first  was  the 
situation   in   Carthage   itself.     On   account  of  the 


14  In  Hauck-Herzog,  3.  Aufl.  XIV,  233. 


Tin-;  Xovati.w  Church.  tn 

open  schism  of  Felicissimus,  Cyprian  had  been  com- 
pelled to  yield  so  far  as  to  grant  the  taking  in  again 

of  the  lapsed.11  He  was  veering  more  and  more  to 
moderate  views  on  this.  Second,  bis  Church  views 
made  recognition  ol  Novatian  Impossible.  The 
Church  is  clergy  and  laity  gathered  around  one  law- 
fully elected  bishop.  There  could  be  no  more  two 
bishops  in  one  city,  in  one  local  Church,  than  there 
could  be  two  heads  on  one  man.  To  hold  to  one 
bishop  is  the  essence  of  Christianity.  Since  Corne- 
lius was  lawfully  elected,  he  is  the  God-appointed 
head  of  the  Roman  Church,  and  not  to  gather  with 
him  is  to  gather  with  the  adversary,  Satan.  That 
there  could  be  two  independent  Churches  in  Rome, 
one  in  love  and  loyalty  to  Christ,  one  in  faith,  hope, 
and  charity,  but  with  different  discipline,  different 
government,  different  heads  independent  of  each 
other  but  not  independent  of  the  Church  and  of 
Christ, — that  is  a  thought  that  never  entered 
Cyprian's  head,  or,  if  it  did,  to  be  repudiated  in- 
stantly. He  was  too  much  a  child  of  the  third  cen- 
tury for  that.  But  it  is  evident  that  the  strictly 
Catholic  evolution  had  not  gone  so  far  that  it  hail 
carried  every  OOC  to  his  position.  If  it  had,  the 
greatest  spirit   in   the   Roman  Church  in  the  third 


U>  Ep.  43  39,,  esp.  gga,  6. 


ii2  Cyprian:  The  Churchman. 

century  would  not  have  allowed  himself  to  be 
elected  as  a  bishop  of  the  Roman  Church,  nor  would 
presbyters,  confessors,  and  laymen  have  united  in 
electing  him.  For  the  previous  legal  election  of 
Cornelius  was  incontestable. 

But  the  majority  were  with  him  who  had  the 
seat.  At  a  great  Roman  synod  where  there  were 
sixty  bishops  and  many  presbyters  and  deacons,16 
Novatian  was  excommunicated,  and  penance  only 
(not  lifelong  exclusion)  proclaimed  for  all  the 
fallen.  Novatian  tried  by  letters  and  embassies  to 
win  recognition  from  brother  bishops.  Nor  was  he 
altogether  unsuccessful.  Fabius  of  Antioch  favored 
him,  and  numerous  synods  at  least  did  not  disown 
him.  Not  so  Cyprian.  He  wrote  to  the  Roman 
confessors  trying  to  call  them  off  from  the  schism, 
so  called,  which  as  usual  he  covered  with  opprobrious 
epithets.17  I  might  have  added  to  the  two  reasons 
which  led  Cyprian  to  oppose  Novatian  a  third,  viz., 
that  his  enemy  in  Carthage,  the  presbyter  Novatus, 
who  had  been  one  of  the  chief  supporters  of  Felicis- 
simus,  went  to  Rome  and  instead  of  favoring  the 
lax  side  of  Cornelius,  as  he  naturally  would  if  his 
principle  had  not  been,  Anything  to  beat  Cyprian,  he 
went  over  to  the  camp  of  Novatian,  and  did  what 


16  Eus.,  6,  43.  17  Ep.  46  (43). 


Tin.  Novatian  Church.  113 

he  could  to  help  him  and  hurt  Cornelius  and 
Cyprian.  Is  it  any  wonder  that  Cyprian  stood  by 
C  »rnelius? 

Nbvatus  makes  the  Carthaginian  furious.  I  It- 
attacks  him  with  all  his  accustomed  venom,  perhaps 
more.  Nbvatus  is  "always  greedy  of  novelty,  rag- 
ing  with  insatiahle  avarice,  inflated  with  arrogance 
and  stupidity  of  swelling  pride;  always  known  with 
bad  repute  to  the  bishops;  always  condemned  by 
the  voice  of  all  the  priests  as  a  heretic  and  perfid- 
ious;  always  inquisitive  that  he  may  betray;  flatters 
that  he  may  deceive:  never  faithful  that  he  may 
love;  a  torch  and  a  fire  to  blow  up  the  flames  of 
sedition,  a  whirlwind  and  tempest  to  make  ship- 
wrecks of  the  faith  ;  the  foe  of  quiet,"  etc.  "Or- 
phans despoiled  by  him,  widows  defrauded,  moneys 
of  the  Church  withheld;  his  father  died  of  hunger 
in  the  street,  and  left  unburied.  The  womb  of  his 
wife  was  smitten  by  a  blow  of  his  heel,  and  in  the 
miscarriage  that  followed  the  offspring  was  brought 
forth,  the  fruit  of  the  father's  murder."1^  That's 
Cyprian.  I  wonder  how  much  of  this  was  personal 
hatred  of  an  opponent,  the  exaggerated  rhetoric  of 
tin-  advocate,  and  how  much  the  actual  description 
of  a  scoundrel  priest      In  the  first  ca.se  it  is  a  bad 


is  Kp.  - 
8 


ii4  Cyprian:  The  Churchman. 

reflection  on  Cyprian;  in  the  second,  it  is  a  worse 
reflection  on  the  Church.  But  it  is  inconceivable 
how  a  man  of  Novatus's  reputation,  as  Cyprian 
described  it,  could  exert  the  influence  he  did  in 
Rome,  according  to  Cyprian's  account,  who  makes 
him  the  chief  cause  of  the  Novatian  movement.19 
Anyhow,  as  Harnack  says,  the  solidarity  between 
Cornelius  and  Cyprian  received  its  strongest  seal 
in  the  common  opposition  against  Novatus. 

Cyprian  now  tried  to  win  the  Roman  confessors 
from  the  side  of  Novatian.  He  succeeded.  Corne- 
lius wrote  to  him  that  the  glorious  confessors,  Max- 
imus  and  his  companions,  had  forsaken  Novatian 
and  returned  to  the  Church,  and  that  they  had  said 
that  they  had  been  deceived  by  the  malice,  cunning, 
lies,  perjury,  and  wolflike  friendship  of  the  de- 
ceiving and  crafty  beast,  the  schismatic  and  heret- 
ical Novatian.20  But  when  the  confessors  them- 
selves came  to  tell  to  Cyprian  the  story  of  their 
leaving  Novatian  they  practically  make  Cornelius 
a  liar,  as  they  allege  no  faults  in  Novatian,  but  sim- 
ply their  concern  for  the  welfare  of  the  Church. 
They  say:  "We  are  certain,  dearest  brother,  that 
you  also  rejoice  together  with  us  with  equal  ear- 

19  The  Liberian  Catalogue  does  the  same.  It  says :  "At  that  time 
Novatus  came  over  from  Africa,  and  separated  Novatian  and  certain  per- 
sons from  the  Church."  20  Ep.  49  (45). 


Tin-:  NOVATIAN  CHUBCH.  115 

nestness  that  we  having  taken  advice,  and  espe- 
cially considering  the  interests  of  peace  of  the 
Church,  having  passed  by  all  other  matters,  and 
reserved  them  to  God's  judgment,  have  made  peace 
with  Cornelius,  our  brother,  as  well  as  with  the 
whole    clergy."*1       Here    they    hinted    at    heavy    ob- 

jections  to  Cornelius,  hut  they  have  been  persuaded 
for  the  sake  of  unity  to  waive  them,  leave  them  to 
a  Higher  Judgment  In  order  to  confirm  them, 
Cyprian  writes  and  sends  them  a  copy  of  his  great 
book  on  the  "Unity  of  the  Church,"  on  which  a 
word  later. 

Xovatian  did  not  give  up  his  cause,  but  sought 
all  the  more  to  push  on  the  institution  of  new 
bishops.--  A  second  embassy  of  Xovatian  agita- 
tors went  to  Carthage,  among  them  Xovatus  him- 
self, while  Cornelius  immediately  sent  his  own  peo- 
ple for  counter  effect,  and  characterized  the  others 
as  transgressors  and  knaves.  The  Xovatian  em- 
succeeded  in  gathering  a  society  in  Carthage, 
Over  which  Maximus  (not  to  he  confounded  with 
the  COnfeSSOr)  was  made  bishop.  There  were  now 
three  independent  Churches  and  bishops  in  Car- 
thage— Cyprian,  Bortunatus  (Felicissimus),  and 
Maximus,   representing  the  moderate,  the  lax,  and 


»  Kp.  53(49:-  a  55  (50.  34. 


u6  Cyprian:  The:  Churchman. 

the  strict  theories  of  discipline,  but  all  being  alike 
Catholic  in  doctrine  and  polity.  But  Cyprian,  in 
spite  of  all  his  passionateness  against  the  "lax,"23 
had  to  make  more  concessions,  which,  of  course, 
sharpened  the  opposition  of  the  Novatian  Church. 
These  concessions  were  the  forebodings  of  the  ac- 
tion of  the  Carthaginian  council  of  May,  253,  when 
under  the  threatening  clouds  of  the  new  persecution, 
that  of  Gallus,  it  was  decided  that  all  the  penitent 
lapsed  should  be  immediately  received.24  A  sensible 
decision,  say  we  of  to-day,  but  what  a  fall  from  the 
olden  times.  One  of  the  reasons  for  this  decision 
was  alleged  to  be  visions  and  revelations,25  to  which 
Cyprian,  no  doubt  with  absolute  honesty  and  per- 
haps truth,  laid  claim,  and  which  reminds  me  of 
the  "private  wire"  of  my  late  lamented  colleague, 
Professor  Samuel  F.  Upham,  who  used  to  say  in  his 
inimitably  droll  way,  "Brethren,  beware  of  the  man 
who  has  a  private  wire  to  heaven."  The  council, 
however,  did  not  renounce  the  communion  with 
bishops  who  still  kept  up  the  old  practice,  only 
threatening  them  with  the  judgment  of  God  for  their 
strictness.  They  evidently  did  not  want  to  make  it 
necessary  (says  Harnack)  for  any  one  to  go  over 
to  the  Novatian  camp. 


23  Ep.  59  (54),  12.  24  S7  (53).  25  Ibid.  gg  2,  5. 


Tin:  Xovatian  Church.  117 

The  persecution  o£  Gallua  was  not  really  .. 
vere  as  was  feared.  Nevertheless  it  gave  oppor- 
tunity for  many  of  the  lapsed  in  the  Decian  to  wit- 
a  courageous  confession,  and  thus  show  the 
genuineness  of  their  penitence  and  standing  as 
Christians.  By  the  banishment  of  Cornelius  it  en- 
abled his  friends  to  celebrate  him  as  a  confe 
and  they  now  said  that  God  himself  had  legitimated 
him  over  against  Xovatian.  The  latter  henceforth 
drops  out  of  the  Cvprianic  letters.  Many  bishops 
kept  up  the  strict  practice  without  joining  Xovatian. 
At  the  great  council  of  Antioch,  though  Xovatian 
was  acknowledged  as  bishop,  the  loose  practice  won 
the  day.  While  some  Churches  came  hack  to  the  so- 
called  Catholic  Church,  the  Xovatian  movement 
spread  over  Egypt,  Asia  Minor,  Syria,  Arabia,  even 
as  far  as  Mesopotamia,  and  at  the  beginning  had 
great  success.20 

At  the  bottom  what  was  the  difference  between 
the  parties?  What  did  the  Xovatian  Church  stand 
for?  While  at  the  start  Xovatian  did  not  diiTer 
materially   from   Cyprian,  he  came  back  under  the 

j  of  the  lax  drift  and  from  aversion  t<»  the  per- 
son and  views  of  Cornelius  to  the  older  view  which 
limited  the  power  of  the  keys  to  remissible  sins.   He 


»Eu».  7,  5;  Ep.  55  51  ,  24. 


n8  Cyprian:  The  Churchman. 

went  on  to  explain  Matt,  x,  32-33  as  the  kernel 
of  the  Gospel,  therefore  to  deny  absolution  in  any 
case  to  one  who  had  lapsed  into  heathenism ;  while 
the  most  conservative  of  the  other  party  allowed 
absolution  to  the  penitent  in  view  of  death,  to  be  fol- 
lowed soon  by  a  much  more  general  application  of 
the  mercy  of  the  Church.  Understand  that  Nova- 
tian  did  not  deny  eternal  salvation  to  the  lapsed  on 
the  strength  of  Matt,  x,  33,  nor  deny  the  efficacy  of 
penitence,  but  said  only  that  the  Scriptures  left  the 
decision  to  God,  and  the  Church  had  no  right  to 
anticipate  this  judgment  and  grant  absolution  in 
cases  reserved  to  Himself.  Harnack  makes  the 
whole  question  come  to  this :  What  is  the  Church 
and  what  are  her  powers?  If  she  is  the  indispensa- 
ble institute  of  salvation  to  the  extent  that  out  of 
her  no  one  can  be  saved  (Cyprian),  then  it  is  fear- 
ful cruelty  to  deny  to  any  penitent  admission  some 
time  before  death.  Cyprian's  doctrine  of  the  Church 
must  inevitably  lead  to  generous  dealings  with  all 
sinners,  and  we  see  in  the  so-called  Catholic 
Churches  to-day  (Roman,  Anglican,  Greek,  Rus- 
sian, Armenian,  etc.) .  Cyprian  did  not  say,  of  course, 
that  all  in  the  Church  would  be  saved,  only  that 
none  outside  of  her  would  be.  On  the  other  hand, 
if  the  Church  is  the  institute  of  salvation  in  the 


Tin;  XovATiAN  Church.  119 

sense  that  she  has  the  Gospel,  the  means  of  grace, 
etc,  hut  that  salvation  is  not  absolutely  bound  up 

with  her,  that  God  still  works  outside  of  her,  then 
leaving  apostates  outside,  while  giving  them  prayers, 
sympathy,  exhortation,  etc,  is  not  cruelty,  because 

they  can  still  be  saved.  And  the  Church  will  not  for 
these  sinners  go  beyond  the  Word. 

Besides,  the  Cvprianic  and  soon  the  general 
Church  theory  means,  as  I  have  just  hinted,  a  lib- 
eral interpretation  of  the  parable  of  the  wheat  and 
the  tares.  The  Church  is  not  the  society  of  the 
saints,  of  the  elect,  but  she  is  the  ground  on  which 
they  grow.  Her  religious  character  is  represented, 
not  by  the  character  of  her  members,  but  by  her 
possession  of  the  keys,  of  sacramental  absolution, 
of  ordination,  of  exclusive  grace.  These  are  in- 
dispensable to  salvation,  but  they  do  not  guarantee 
salvation.  But  she  instructs  for  salvation,  and 
stimulates  to  virtue,  and  only  in  her  has  virtue  any 
worth  from  God.27  All  this  meant  further  exter- 
nalizing, for  we  have  t"  tell  the  inquirer  where  the 
Church  is.  This  led  to  the  priesthood,  especially 
to  the  episcopate,  which  in  its  unity  guarantees  the 
legitimacy  of  the  Church.  So  every  schism  becomes 
in  effect  a  heresy. — an  advance  beyond  Iremeus  and 


27  ■*  54    5o;  57    53  .  4- 


120  Cyprian:  The;  Churchman. 

Tertullian.  On  the  other  hand,  Novatian  said,  the 
Church  must  exclude  great  sinners ;  she  can  not  ab- 
solve idolators,  but  must  refer  their  case  to  God, 
who  alone  has  the  power  to  forgive  such  sins.28  "It 
is  not  necessary,"  he  said,  "to  have  peace  from  the 
bishops  in  order  to  share  in  the  glory  of  the  martyrs, 
— greater  peace  is  to  be  received  through  the  au- 
thority of  the  Lord."20  He  believed  also  that  mortal 
sin  in  any  member  of  the  society  stains  in  a  sense 
the  whole  Church.30  The  Church's  formal  forgive- 
ness is  not  necessary  to  salvation;  God  reserves 
some  authority  to  Himself.  The  chief  matter  is 
union  with  Christ.  The  Church  must  be  really 
what  she  is  ostensibly, — a  Church  of  saints. 

To  an  evangelical  Christian  the  Novatian  move- 
ment must  look  as  a  well-meant  but  belated  and  vain 
effort  to  "save  the  face"  of  primitive  Christianity 
in  an  ill-timed  emphasis  on  second-century  features 
of  pentitential  discipline  by  those  who  knew  apos- 
tolic Christianity  almost  as  little  as  their  opponents. 
Both  were  Catholic,  not  evangelical.  If  the  Church 
must  be  Catholic,  perhaps  the  bishops  were  as  wise 
as  Novatian.  The  greatest  transformation  Chris- 
tianity ever  underwent — that  from  the  Gospel  of 
faith  and  love  of  the  first  century  to  the  hierarchical 


28  Soc.  4,  28.  29  Ep.  57  (53),  4.  30  5S  (51),  27. 


Tin-:  Xoyatiax  Church.  121 

and  sacramental  Catholicism  of  the  second  and 
third — that    transformation    the    bishops    carried 

through,  Harnack  thinks,  with  moderation  and  dis- 
cretion. And  if  that  transformation  was  an  his- 
torical necessity,  hack  current  eddies  like  Nova- 
tian's,  the  Donatist,  etc.,  were  as  futile  as  thev  were 
illogical.  Still  thev  are  interesting  as  reminders  of 
another  and  truer  age. 


CHAPTER  X. 
MERCY  AND  HELP. 

The  glory  of  ancient  Christianity  was  as  much 
its  love  as  its  faith.  The  love  was  the  fruit  of  the 
faith  and  showed  its  genuineness  and  its  power. 
This  was  the  talisman  which  opened  the  hearts  of 
many  pagans:  Behold  how  these  Christians  love 
one  another.  An  instance  or  two  of  this  in  Cyp- 
rian's life  shows  that  great  bishop  and  Christian  in 
his  most  attractive  light. 

The  barbaric  tribes  who  were  driven  back  from 
the  fertile  coast  line  of  Africa  by  the  Romans  were 
never  entirely  subdued,  but  ever  and  anon  made 
raids  on  the  peaceful  settlements, — prophecy  of  the 
coming  time  when  Vandal  and  Saracen  would  sweep 
away  African  Christianity  and  the  civilization  which 
went  with  it.  "In  the  year  252  there  was  a  concen- 
trated general  advance.  Mauretania  felt  them. 
They  broke  out  of  Aures  through  the  grand  chain 
of  fortress  settlements,  harassing  the  domains  of  the 
strongest  towns,  Thubunae  in  the  salt  marsh,  and 
122 


Mr.ucv   AND  I  Ir.i.r.  1 3 3 

the    vast    .soldier    colony    of    Laml>;e>i>.      From    the 

Sahara  they  came  righl  through  the  province  itself 
into  the  terebinth  woods  of  Tucca  and  to  the  gTeat 
center  of  traffic,  Assuras,  little  more  than  a  hundred 
miles  from  Carthage.    The  Christian  population  of 

at    least    eight    sees    was    thus    lacerated."1      It    was 

principally  the  women  and  children  whom  the  Ber- 
bers thus  kidnaped. 

These  Berber  raids  seem  in  real  cruelty  to  have 
been  child's  play  beside  the  Turkish  massacres 
of  Bulgarians  in  1876  and  of  Armenians  in  1895, 
but  they  were  sufficiently  devastating.  As  to  kid- 
naping, that  is  an  old  practice  which  seems  in- 
digenous to  those  Eastern  lands,  of  which  our  own 
generation  lias  had  reminders  in  the  cases  of  the 
accomplished  and  devoted  Miss  Stone,  kidnaped 
by  revolutionists  restive  under  Turkish  misrule  in 
1901,  and  the  American  I  Yrdiearis,  kidnaped  by  a 
Mohammedan  insurrectionary  chief  in  this  same 
Mauretania  in  n/>4.  when  we  had  Roosevelt's 
famous  message,  "Perdicaris  alive  or  Raisuli  dead!"' 

The  redeeming  of  captives  was  not  specifically 
a  Christian  virtue.    Cicn-o  praises  it  as  especially 

ming  senators:     'That  benignity  a  useful  to 


1   '  -rfully  careful   and  accurate  in  all 

phical,  .uui.[u.tn.iu,  .in.i  .  kiioa. 


124  Cyprian:  The  Churchman. 

the  State  by  which  captives  are  redeemed  from  slav- 
ery, and  the  poor  are  enriched.  That  it  was  the 
common  custom  with  our  order  we  see  copiously 
described  in  the  speech  of  Crassus.  This  kind  of 
bounty  I  prefer  far  before  the  munificent  exhibition 
of  shows.  That  is  the  part  of  grave  men  and  of 
great,  this  of  flatterers  of  the  populace."2  But  it  is 
doubtful  how  much  pure  benevolence  in  the  Chris- 
tian sense  there  was  in  this,  or  whether  it  was  not 
something  like  the  modern  practice  of  exchanging 
prisoners  of  war.  At  any  rate  in  rescuing  the  Ber- 
ber captives  everybody  contributed,  rich  and  poor — 
the  spontaneous  pouring  out  of  affection  for  those 
in  distress.  In  the  Church  of  Carthage  about  one 
hundred  thousand  sesterces  (about  $4,000)  were 
contributed, — an  enormous  sum  for  a  Church  just 
decimated  by  persecution,  which  always  meant  con- 
fiscation of  property,  as  well  as  the  imprisonment, 
banishment,  or  death  of  bread-winners.  It  shows, 
however,  the  tremendous  hold  Christianity  had  got- 
ten on  all  classes  of  society — not  less  among  the 
rich — in  the  third  century. 

An  interesting  letter  is  that  which  Cyprian  sends 
with  the  contribution.3    The  cold  lawyer  of  heathen- 


2  De  Officiis,  2,  18.     The  liberal  "redeem  those  captured  by  robbers," 
etc.  (2,  16).  8  Ep.  62  (59). 


Mercy  and  I  in. p.  125 

ism,  whose  old  sternness  had  not  left  him,  however, 
in  dealing  with  men  of  his  own  faith  who  had  left 
his  kind  of  unity,  has  been  transformed  by  the  beau- 
tiful spirit  of  Christian  piety.  "With  l 
grief  and  with  tears,  dearest  brethren,  I  have  read 
your  letter,  which,  from  the  solicitude  of  your  love, 
yon  wrote  to  me  concerning  the  captivity  of  your 

brethren  and  sisters."  He  then  quotes  the  fine 
es  of  Paul,  1  Cor.  jrii,  26,  2  Cor.  xi,  29,  and 
Says  :  "The  captivity  of  OUr  brethren  must  be  reck- 
oned our  captivity,  and  the  grief  of  those  in  danger 
cur  grief,  since  indeed  there  is  one  body  of  our 
union :  and  not  love  only,  but  religion  ought  to  in- 
stigate and  strengthen  us  to  redeem  the  members  of 
the  brethren."  He  then  refers  to  the  possible  fate 
of  women  and  girls,  and  adds:  "Our  brotherhood 
considering  all  these  things  according  to  your  let- 
ter, and  sorrowfully  examining,  have  all  promptly 
and  willingly  and  liberally  gathered  together  sup- 
plies of  money  for  the  brethren,  heme;  indeed  always 
according  to  the  strength  of  their  faith  prone  to 
the  work  of  Cod.  but  now  once  more  stimulated  to 
salutary  works  by  consideration  of  so  great  a  suffer- 

WC  have  then  sent   you  a  sum  of  one  hundred 

thousand  -.   which  have  been  collected  here 

in  the  Chnreh  over  which,  by  the  Lord's  mercy,  we 


126  Cyprian:  The  Churchman. 

preside,  by  the  contributions  of  the  clergy  and  peo- 
ple established  with  us,  which  you  will  there  dis- 
pense with  what  diligence  you  may."  He  deprecates 
the  coming  of  such  a  calamity  again,  but  says  that 
if  it  should  come  the  Church  in  Carthage  "will  will- 
ingly and  liberally  render  help."  He  encloses  sep- 
arately the  names  of  contributors,  especially  "of  my 
colleagues  and  fellow-priests,"  and  asks  the  Numid- 
ian  Church  to  remember  them  in  prayer. 

Perhaps  a  severer  test  was  the  terrible  plague 
which  visited  Africa  in  252.  It  was  a  kind  of  malig- 
nant typhoid  fever,  complicated  with  other  horrible 
symptoms  or  diseases.  Nothing  tests  fidelity  to  al- 
truistic ideals  better  than  a  fearful  visitation  like 
this.  Modern  Christendom  hardly  knows  what  this 
means,  though  India  and  Ireland  have  known 
famine ;  and  occasionally  tropical  diseases,  the  off- 
spring of  insanitary  living  and  effluvia  of  the  ac- 
cumulated filth  of  ages,  have  struck  civilized  lands, 
(e.  g.,  yellow  fever,  New  Orleans,  1878,  1905.) 
The  last  time  a  great  plague  spread  from  the  east 
and  south  as  far  north  as  England  was  in  1663-5, 
though  portions  of  Europe  were  devastated  more 
than  once  in  the  eighteenth  century,  and  parts  of 
the  East  frequently  in  the  nineteenth.  The  fatality 
of  these  epidemics  is  something  awful,  the  Black 


Mercy  and  Help.  127 

Death  of  1348-50  carrying  away,  it  is  said,  a  quar- 
ter of  the  population  of  Europe.  We  need  not  be 
surprised,  then,  at  the  agony  and  mortal  terror  of 
pagan  populations  when  such  a  specter  stepped  into 
their  midst.     Those  that  could  tied  to  uninfected 

places  or  anywhere  to  escape  the  dread  disease. 
They  left  their  sick  behind,  or  thrust  them  out  of 
their  houses  to  die  in  the  streets,  and  left  their  dead 
bodies  unburied. 

"  Before  mine  eyes  in  opposition  sits 
Grim  death,  my  son  and  foe." 

What  a  commentary  on  that  generous  and  beautiful 
paganism  some  of  our  moderns  praise ! 

For  twenty  years  this  plague  went  to  and  fro 
through  Mediterranean  lands.  It  came  back  to 
Alexandria  in  261  and  in  four  years  it  had  reduced 
the  population  one-half.  It  was  the  ally  of  the  Per- 
sian in  his  war  with  the  Roman  Emperor  Valerian, 
for  it  slew  more  Romans  than  his  sword.  In 
five  thousand  died   in   Rome,  ami — if  the  historian 

Trebellius  Pollio  is  considered  correct — the  same 
number  in  Achaia  in  a  single  day!  Is  it  any  won- 
der that  to  contemporaries  it  seemed  the  darkest 
misery  that  every  visited  mankind' 

The  heathen  struck  coins  and   raised  altars  to 


128  Cyprian  :  The;  Churchman. 

"Healthful  Apollo"  (Apollo  Salutaris).  But  their 
effective  remedy  has  just  been  mentioned, — flights, 
desertions,  barred  gates,  assassinations,  drugged 
possets,  seizures  of  fortunes  of  the  sick  and  dying. 
Let  the  simple  story  of  Cyprian's  Deacon  Pon- 
tius tell  how  both  sides  met  the  "hateful  disease" 
which  invaded  every  house  in  succession  of  the 
trembling  populace,  carrying  off,  day  by  day,  with 
sudden  attack,  numberless  people,  every  one  from 
his  own  house.  All  were  shuddering,  fleeing,  shun- 
ning the  contagion,  impiously  exposing  their  own 
friends,  as  if  with  the  shutting  out  of  the  person 
who  was  sure  to  die  of  the  plague,  one  could  shut 
out  death  itself.  Meanwhile  over  the  whole  city 
there  lay  the  carcasses  of  many,  and  by  contempla- 
tion of  a  lot  which  in  their  turn  would  be  theirs,  de- 
manded the  pity  of  the  passers-by  for  themselves. 
No  one  regarded  anything  but  his  cruel  gains.  No 
one  trembled  at  the  remembrance  of  a  similar  event. 
No  one  did  to  another  what  he  wished  for  himself. 
In  these  circumstances  it  would  be  wrong  to  pass 
over  what  the  pontiff  of  Christ  (Cyprian)  did,  who 
excelled  the  pontiffs  of  the  world  in  the  love,  as  he 
did  in  the  truth,  of  religion.  As  the  people  as- 
sembled together  in  one  place  he  urged  the  benefits 
of  mercy,  teaching  by  example  the  same  lessons  how 


Mr.Kcv  and  IIki.p.  129 

greatly  the  duties  of  benevolence  avail  to  deserve 

well  i'i  God.    Then  he  said  that  there  was  nothing 

lerful  in  our  cherishing  our  own  people  only 

with  th</  needed  attentions  of  love,  but  that  he  might 

Ct  who  would  do  something  more  than 
the  publicans  and  the  heathen.  He  must  overcome 
evil  with  good,  practice  a  clemency  like  the  divine 
clemency,  love  even  his  enemies,  pray  for  his  per- 
secutors, as  the  Lord  exhorts.  God  continually 
makes  his  sun  to  shine  and  sends  showers  upon 
aliens  as  well  as  His  own.  And  ii  a  man  professes 
•  a  son  of  God.  why  does  he  not  imitate  the 
example  of  his  Father?  It  becomes  us,  he  said,  to 
answer  to  our  birth  (respondere  natalibus),  and  it 
i>  n<>t  fitting  that  those  who  are  evidently  born  of 
( i<  id  should  be  degenerate,  but  rather  that  the  propa- 
>:i  of  a  good  Father  should  be  proved  in  His 
offspring  by  the  emulation  of  His  goodness."4 

The*  ition  responded  nobly.    They  raised 

an  abundant  fund,  formed  a  staff  for  nursing  the 
sick,  another  for  the  burial  of  the  dead,  and  COVi 
the  stricken  city  with   a  network   of  relief.      What 
impression  did   this  make  uj.mii  the  heathen''     Ap- 

•itly  not  very  much.    They  were  enraged  be- 
cause the  Christians  did  not  join  in  their  offerings 

<  Vila  C'yp.  9. 
9 


130  Cyprian  :  The  Churchman. 

to  Health,  to  Apollo,  and  to  Coelestis,  Queen  of 
Heaven  (compare  the  offerings  of  Roman  Catholics 
to  Mary,  Queen  of  Heaven,  under  similar  and  other 
circumstances).  The  populace  clamored  for  the 
blood  of  the  overseer,  Cyprian,  who  was  prompting 
the  noblest  relief  for  them.  "To  the  lions,"  they 
called  out  in  circus  and  amphitheater,  and  had  him 
officially  proscribed  :5  pagan  to  Cyprian,  Jew  to  his 
Master  after  the  raising  of  Lazarus.6  Pontius 
speaks  of  his  later  banishment  as  a  pagan  recom- 
pense for  benevolent  civic  activity,  for  his  "with- 
drawing from  living  sight  a  horror  like  that  of 
hell,  for  saving  his  country  from  becoming  the 
empty  shell  of  an  exiled  population."7 

Cyprian's  book,  "Of  Works  and  Alms,"  may  be 
considered  an  echo  of  this  great  self-sacrifice  of 
the  Carthaginian  Church.  It  is  his  philosophy  of 
good  deeds,  his  doctrine  of  merit.  Is  he  here  Cath- 
olic or  Protestant?  I  think  he  does  not  belie  his 
age  nor  himself.  "God  can  be  appeased  by  alms- 
giving alone."8  "By  works  of  righteousness  God  is 
satisfied,  and  with  the  deserts  of  mercy  sins  are 
cleansed."9  He  quotes  the  angel  Raphael :  "Prayer 
is  good,  and  fasting,  and  alms;  because  alms  also 


5  Ep.  54  (59),  6.  6  John  xi,  53.  7  Vita  Cyp.  11. 

8  De  Opere  et  Eleemosynis,  4.  9  Ibid.  5. 


Mercy  and  I  Iki.p.  131 

doth  deliver  from  death,  and  it  ptirgeth  away  sins."10 
Prayer  alone  is  of  little  avail  unless  it  be  made  suffi- 
cient by  good  works.  ITe  takes  Christ's  words  in 
Matt  xix,  21,  as  the  law  of  the  Gospel,  and  not  sim- 
ply the  instruction  which  at  that  time  the  wise 
Teacher  saw  was  best  for  the  case  before  him.  God 
"distributes  to  our  merits  and  good  works  the  prom- 
ised reward.-."  "The  Lord  will  never  fail  of  giving 
a  reward  for  our  merits."11 

On  the  other  hand,  the  treatise  "Of  Works  and 
Alms,"  is  a  noble  plea  for  beneficence  and  good 
deeds.  He  strikes  home  upon  those  who  by  the 
'"coveteousness  of  money  do  nothing  for  the  fruit 
of  their  salvation,"  and  he  hopes  that  the  "blush  of 
dishonor  and  disgrace  may  strike  upon  their  sordid 
consciences."  He  boldly  represents  Satan  twit- 
ting Christ  with  the  devotion  of  his  (Satan's)  fol- 
lowers, the  rich  gifts  they  give  to  Him,  and  the 
meanness  of  Christ's  people.  "Show,  O  Christ,  such 
givers  as  these  of  Thine — those  rich  men,  those 
men  affluent  with  abounding  wealth — whether  in 
the  Church  wherein  Thou  presidest  and  beholdest 
they  set  forth  a  gift  of  that  kind,  having  pledged 
or  scattered  their  riches,  yea  having  transferred 
them   then   by  the  change  of  their  possessions  for 


10  Tob.  xii,  8,  9.  11  Dc  Op.  ct  El.  26. 


132  Cyprian:  The  Churchman. 

the  better,  into  heavenly  treasures !  In  those  spec- 
tacles of  mine,  perishing  and  earthly  as  they  are,  no 
one  is  fed,  no  one  is  clothed,  no  one  is  sustained  by 
the  comfort  of  any  meat  or  drink.  All  things  be- 
tween the  madness  of  the  exhibitor  and  the  mistake 
of  the  spectator  are  perishing  in  a  prodigal  and  fool- 
ish vanity  of  deceiving  pleasures.  There  in  thy  poor 
thou  art  clothed  and  fed.  Thou  providest  eternal 
life  for  those  who  labor  for  Thee,  and  scarcely  are 
Thy  people  made  equal  to  mine  that  perish,  although 
they  are  honored  by  Thee  with  divine  wages  and 
heavenly  rewards."12  How  beautiful  his  praise  of 
charity :  "An  illustrious  and  divine  thing  is  the  sav- 
ing labor  of  charity ;  a  great  comfort  to  believers,  a 
wholesome  guard  of  our  security,  a  protection  of 
hope,  a  safeguard  of  faith,  a  remedy  for  sin,  a  thing 
placed  in  the  power  of  the  doer,  a  thing  both  great 
and  easy,  a  crown  of  peace  without  the  risk  of  per- 
secution ;  the  true  and  greatest  gift  of  God,  needful 
for  the  weak,  glorious  for  the  strong,  assisted  by 
which  the  Christian  accomplishes  spiritual  grace, 
deserves  well  of  Christ  the  Judge,  accounts  God 
his  debtor.  For  the  palm  of  work  of  salvation  let 
us  gladly  and  readily  strive,  let  us  all  in  the  struggle 
of  righteousness  run  with  God  and  Christ  looking 


12  De  Op.  et  El.  22. 


Mercy  and  1 1  r 1. 1*.  133 

on.     And  let  us  who  haw  already  begun  to  be 

greater  than  this  life  and  the  world  slacken  onr 
course  by  no  desire  of  this  life  and  of  this  world. 
It  the  day  shall  find  us,  whether  it  be  the  day  of 
reward  or  of  oppression,  furnished,  if  swift,  if  run- 
ning- in  this  contest  of  charity,  the  Lord  will  never 
fail  of  giving  a  reward  for  our  merits:  in  peace  1  [e 
will  give  to  us  who  conquer  a  white  crown  for  labor, 
in  persecution  a  purple  one  for  death."13  We  have 
here  the  words  of  a  holy  and  devoted  shepherd  of 
souls,  though  of  one  steeped  in  Catholic  ideas. 

The  sufferings  which  come  to  Christians  and 
heathen  brought  up  the  two  questions:  (1)  Why  do 
calamities  come  to  the  world?  and  (2)  Why  do 
Christians  suffer?  It  will  be  interesting  to  notice 
how  these  puzzling  everlasting  questions  are  an- 
swered by  Cyprian. 

In  one  of  his  most  interesting  books  he  takes  up 
the  first  question.  It  seems  that  Demetrianus,  pro- 
consul of  Africa,  had  charged  upon  the  Christians 
that  they  were  the  cause  of  all  the  terrible  plagues, 
etc.,  which  were  now  falling  upon  the  empire.  This 
opinion  of  his  lent  zest  to  his  persecuting  measure. 

Cyprian  meets  it  in  this  book  "Ad  Demetrianum"  in 

two  ways.     First,  lie  Bays  that  such  things  must  be 


13  Dc  op.  et  El.  26. 


134  Cyprian:  The  Churchman. 

expected  in  the  old  age  of  the  world,  when  the 
forces  of  nature  are  drying  up  and  all  things  hasten- 
ing to  a  common  ruin.14  How  foolish  to  impute 
to  Christians  what  is  due  to  nature.  "No  one 
should  wonder  that  everything  begins  to  fail  in  the 
world  when  the  whole  world  itself  is  in  process  of 
failing,  and  in  its  end."  Second,  so  far  from  calam- 
ities being  punishments  for  Christians'  impiety,  they 
are  direct  punishments^  for  heathen  idolatry.  All 
these  natural  evils — pestilence,  disease,  failure  of 
crops,  famine,  etc. — are  "in  consequence  of  the  sins 
which  provoke  them."  They  are  all  stripes  of  the 
Lord.  The  treatise  is  a  terrific  arraignment  of  the 
evils  of  the  time,  and  a  proof  that  Cyprian's  hiding 
from  persecution  was  not  due  to  cowardice,  for  no 
coward  could  write  in  this  strain.  "You  complain 
that  the  enemy  rises  up,  as  if,  even  though  external 
arms  and  dangers  from  barbarians  were  repressed, 
the  weapons  of  destructive  assault,  the  calamities 
and  wrongs  of  powerful  citizens,  would  not  be  more 
ferocious  and  more  harshly  wielded  within.  You 
complain  of  barrenness  and  famine,  as  if  drought 
made  a  greater  famine  than  rapacity,  as  if  the  fierce- 
ness of  want  did  not  increase  more  terribly  from 
grasping  at  the  increase  of  the  year's  produce  and 


14  This  striking  passage  is  inserted  in  the  Hurst  Ch.  Hist.  I,  ic 


Mercy  and  i  Iki.p.  135 

the  accumulation  of  their  price.  You  complain  that 
the  heaven  is  shut  up  from  showers,  although  in 
the  same  way  the  barns  are  shut  up  on  earth.  You 
complain  that  now  less  i^  produced,  as  if  what  al- 
ready had  been  produced  is  given  to  the  indigent 
You  reproach  plague  and  disease,  while  by  plague 
itself  or  disease  the  crimes  of  individuals  are  either 
detected  or  increased,  while  mercy  is  nut  manifested 
to  the  weak,  and  avarice  and  rapine  are  waiting 
open-mouthed  for  the  dead.  The  same  men  are 
timid  in  the  duties  of  affection,  but  rash  in  quest  of 
impious  gains,  shunning  the  deaths  of  the  dying,  and 
craving  the  spoils  of  the  dead ;  forsaking  sick 
wretches  lest  they  by  being  cured  may  escape  the 
hand  clutching  for  their  estate 

Cyprian  denounces  the  heathen  method  of  deal- 
ing with  Christians,  tearing  their  bodies,  lacerating 
their  vitals,  or  devising  new  tortures.1 '''  Besides  in 
this  case  tortures,  which  are  used  to  extort  con- 
fessions of  crime,  are  not  necessary ;  because  Chris- 
tians readily  confess  their  Christianity.  Publicly, 
openly,  in  the  hearing  of  your  magistrates  and  gov- 
ernora  I  freely  confess  that  I  am  a  Christian  ;  why 
then  do  you  apply  tortures  to  one  who  thus  Openly 
destroys  your  gods?11    But  as  to  the  main  question, 


is  Ad.  Dcmct.  10.  M  [bid.  ia.  If  Ibid.  13. 


136  Cyprian:  The;  Churchman. 

Why  are  these  evils  permitted?  they  are  the  direct 
judgments  of  the  Almighty. 

As  to  the  second  question,  Why  do  Christians 
suffer?  Cyprian  came  to  that  in  his  beautiful  treatise 
"On  Mortality,"  written  to  comfort  the  Christians 
in  the  plague.  The  first  reason  is  the  common 
humanity  which  Christians  have  with  others.  All 
the  ordinary  disabilities  of  the  flesh,  all  ordinary 
disasters,  must  necessarily  be  common  to  all  who 
wear  the  common  body.18  The  second  reason  is  the 
fact  that  Christians  are  attacked  by  the  devil  more 
than  others.19  Besides,  they  must  be  tried  as  sol- 
diers, that  their  courage  and  constancy  may  appear. 
Their  trials  perfect  faith,  strengthen  virtue.20  After 
describing  the  horrible  symptoms  of  the  plague  he 
says:  "What  grandeur  of  spirit  it  is  to  struggle 
with  all  the  powers  of  an  unshaken  mind  against  so 
many  onsets  of  devastation  and  death !  What  sub- 
limity to  stand  erect  amid  the  desolations  of  the 
human  race  and  not  to  lie  prostrate  with  those  who 
have  no  faith  in  God!  But  rather  to  rejoice,  by 
suffering  and  showing  forth  our  faith  going  for- 
ward to  Christ  by  the  narrow  way  that  Christ  trod, 
Ave  may  receive  the  reward  of  his  life  and  faith  ac- 
cording to  His  own  judgment."21     As  consolation 


18  De  Mort.  8.  19  Ibid.  9.  20  Ibid.  13.  21  Ibid.  14. 


Mercy  and  Help,  137 

Cyprian  looks  away  to  the  other  life — it  is  Paul's, 
The  sufferings  of  this  present  time  are  not  worthy 
to  be  compared  with  the  glory  that  shall  1" 
vealed.11  But  there  arc  compensations  here:  the 
plague  snatches  virgins  away  from  the  danger  of 
brothels,  boys  from  the  perils  of  their  unstable  age, 
and  matrons  from  the  torments  of  the  executioner. 
Besides  by  all  these  things  the  "lukewarm  arc  in- 
flamed, the  slack  arc  nerved  up,  slothful  stimulated, 
deserters  compelled  to  return,  heathens  constrained 
to  believe,  the  ancient  congregation  of  the  faithful 
called  to  rest,  the  new  and  abundant  congregation 
of  the  faithful  gathered  to  battle  with  a  braver  vigor 
to  fight  without  fear  of  death  when  the  battle  shall 
come. 

In  addition  Cyprian  sees  in  the  plague  a  kind 
of  probation,  a  testing.  This  proves  its  pertinence 
and  necessity.  It  searches  the  righteousness  of  each 
one  ;  it  proves  whether  the  healthy  tend  the  sick, 
whether  relatives  love  their  kindred,  masters  pity 
lit.-,  physicians  forsake  patients,  the  tierce  sup- 
thtir    violence,    rapacious    their    avarice,    the 

haughty  bend  their  neck,  wicked  soften  their  bold- 

the  rich  give.     It  train>  Christians  for  martyr- 
dom by  teaching  them  not  to  fear  death.  'These  arc 


R  in   \  M  it   1; 


138  Cyprian:  The:  Churchman. 

trainings  for  us,  not  deaths.  They  give  the  mind 
the  glory  of  fortitude;  by  contempt  of  death  they 
prepare  for  the  crown."24 

The  best  part  of  the  treatise  is  devoted  to  a 
beautiful  exhortation  to  fidelity  on  account  of  the 
heavenly  rewards  that  await  the  faithful.  Here 
Cyprian  appears  at  his  best.  Why  should  we  bewail 
those  who  are  "not  lost  but  gone  before?'"25  Why 
should  we  wear  black  here  for  those  who  wear 
white  there  ?  Will  wTe  lay  ourselves  open  to  the  re- 
proach of  the  heathen  that  the  heart  does  not  in- 
dorse the  testimony  of  the  mouth  ?2G  Death  is  the 
entrance  to  life.  Therefore  let  us  hail  the  day  that 
calls  us  home.  There  our  dear  ones  are  waiting  for 
us — parents,  brothers,  children,  all  longing  for  us 
and  solicitous  for  our  salvation.  To  attain  their 
presence  and  embrace — what  a  gladness  for  them 
and  us.  There  death  can  not  enter.  Then  think  of  the 
company ;  the  glorious  company  of  the  apostles,  the 
host  of  rejoicing  prophets,  innumerable  multitudes 
of  martyrs,27  the  triumphant,  virgins,  the  men  of 
mercy  who  won  the  reward  of  kindness  to  the  poor. 
To  these  let  us  hasten  with  eager  desire ;  let  us  crave 


24  De  Mort.  16.     25  Sciamus  non  eos  amitti  sed  praemitti.       26  Ibid.  20. 
27  Apostolorum  gloriosus  chorus ; 
Prophetarum  exulantium  numurus; 
Martyrum  innumerabilis  populus. 


Mercy  and  Help.  139 

to  be  quickly  with  them  and  COine  quickly  to  Christ ! 

May  God  behold  our  eager  desire;  may  the  1 

Christ   look   upon    this    pur]  ur    mind    and 

faith!    He  will  give  the  larger  reward-  of  his  glory 

to  those  whose  desires  in  respect  of  Himself  were 
greater.*8 


2s  De  Murt.  26. 


CHAPTER  XL 
THE  LORD'S  PRAYER. 

That  the  Lord's  Prayer  was  intended  as  a  model 
and  help  rather  than  a  form  to  be  strictly  followed, 
is  apparent  from  the  fact  that  Christianity  is  a  re- 
ligion of  the  spirit,  and  from  the  additional  fact 
that  in  New  Testament  times  it  is  never  once  re- 
ferred to,  and  in  the  post-apostolic  writings  only 
in  the  so-called  Teaching  of  the  Apostles  (viii,  2). 
Tertullian  is  the  first  to  treat  it  (about  the  close  of 
the  second  century).  In  the  third  or  fourth  cen- 
tury it  entered  into  the  liturgy  of  the  Church,  and 
ever  since  that  has  been  used  by  liturgical  and 
many  non-liturgical  Churches, — by  some  in  the 
heathen  way  rebuked  by  Christ.1  It  speaks  highly 
for  Cyprian  that  in  the  midst  of  the  anguish  of  the 
plague  and  the  care  of  the  Church  he  could  find 
heart  and  time  to  write  a  treatise  on  the  Lord's 
Prayer. 

Cyprian  has  a  good  idea  of  prayer.    After  com- 


1  Matt,  vi,  7. 

I40 


Tm:  Lord's  Prayer.  m* 

mending  secret  prayer,  he  says  that  when  we  come 

her  in  oik-  place  to  "celebrate  divine  Bacrii 
with  God's  priest,"  we  must  observe  modesty  and 
discipline,  not  throw  abroad  our  prayers  indiscrim- 
inately, with  loud  voices,  "nor  cast  to  God  with 
tumultuous  wordiness  a  petition  that  ought  I 
commended  to  God  by  modesty,  for  God  is  the 
hearer  not  of  the  voice,  but  of  the  heart,"— a  caution 
that  reminds  one  of  the  anxious  question  of  a  little 
boy  in  Pittston,  Pa,,  on  hearing  the  boisterous  plead- 
ing of  some  preacher,  "Mother,  is  his  God  d 
God  need  not  be  clamorously  reminded,  says  Cyp- 
rian, since  he  sees  men's  thought 

The  text  of  the  prayer  Cyprian  used  ran:  "Our 
Father  who  art  in  heaven,  hallowed  be  Thy  name. 
Thy  kingdom  come.  Thy  will  be  done,  as  in  heaven 
so  on  earth.    Give  us  this  day  our  daily  bread   And 

ive  us  our  debts  as  we  forgive  our  debtors. 

And  suffer  us  not  to  be  led  into  temptation,  but  de- 
liver us  from  evil  (  or  the  evil  one  ) .    Amen." 

The  first  point  made  is  the  unselfishness  oi  the 

prayer.     It  is  not  my   Father,   it   is  not,  my  daily 
id,  but  our   Father,  our  daily  bread.   OUT  debts, 

lead  us  not,  etc.    But  Cyprian's  mind  is  not  so  much 

,  n  the  miM-ltidmess  of  the  prayer  M  00  ttS  teaching 


142  Cyprian:  The  Churchman. 

of  unity.  "Our  prayer  is  public  and  common ;  when 
we  pray,  we  pray  not  for  one,  but  for  the  whole 
people,  because  we,  the  whole  people,  are  one."3 
Unity  is  taught  everywhere.    That  is  all  important. 

As  to  "Father,"  Cyprian  does  not  see  at  all  any 
hint  of  Christ's  teaching  as  to  the  universal  Father- 
hood of  God.  It  is  only  those  who  believe  in  Christ, 
and  who  in  baptism  have  put  Him  on,  who  are  God's 
sons.  A  sinful  people  can  not  be  a  son,  but  only 
those  who  have  received  remission  of  sins  and  to 
whom  immortality  is  promised.4 

"Hallowed  be  Thy  name"  means  that  His  name 
may  be  hallowed  in  us  by  our  continual  sanctifica- 
tion.  This  was  begun  in  baptism,  which  washed  us 
from  our  sins,  but  the  cleansing  must  be  continued 
through  the  grace  of  God,  received  in  the  "name 
of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  by  the  Spirit  of  our 
God."5 

As  to  the  kingdom  ("Thy  kingdom  come") 
Cyprian  does  not  have  a  very  clear  idea.  He  ap- 
parently makes  it  equivalent  with  our  rejoicing 
with  Christ  hereafter.  He  says  also  that  Christ 
himself  may  be  the  kingdom  of  God,  "whom  we  day 
by  day  desire  to  come,  whose  advent  we  crave  to  be 
quickly  manifested  to  us."    As  to  a  progressive  ex- 


3  De  Dom.  Orat.  8.  4  Ibid.  9,  10.  5  Ibid.  12. 


Tin:  Lord's  Prayer.  143 

pulsion  of  Christianity  until  the  kingdoms  of  busi- 
.  of  pleasure,  of  national  affairs,  etc,  become 
the  kingdoms  of  Christ,  or  aa  to  any  missionary  ap- 
plication of  the  prayer,  Cyprian  is  silent.'"1 

1  [e  has  excellent  remarks  on  "Thy  will  be  done." 
1  le  still  speaks  to  US  here.     The  will  of  God  IS  what 

Christ  taught  and  did    "Humility  in  conversation; 
steadfastness  in  faith;  modesty  in  words;  justi 
deeds;  mercifulness  m  works:  discipline  in  morals; 

to  be  unable  to  do  a  wrong,  and  to  be  able  to  bear 

a  wrong  when  done;  tO  keep  peace  with  the  breth- 
ren: to  love  God  with  all  one's  heart:  to  love  I  Tim 
because  He  is  a  Father;  to  fear  Him  because  IK-  is 
God;  to  prefer  nothing  whatever  to  Christ  because 

He  did  not  prefer  anything  to  us;  to  adhere  i: 
arable  to  His  love;  to  stand  by  His  cross  bravely 
and  faithfully:  when  there  is  any  contest  on  behalf 
of  his  name  and  honor,  to  show  in  words  constancy 
in  confession,  in  torture  that  confidence  wherewith 
we  do  battle,  in  death  that  patience  whereby  we  are 
crowned,  this  is  to  desire  to  be  fellow-heirs  with 
Christ  :  this  is  to  do  the  commandment  of  Go^\ ;  this 
is  to  fulfill  the  will  of  the  bather."7    Surely  these  are 

golden  words.    We  should  also  pray  for  those  who 

are  not  in  the  Church,  that  they  "who  are  a>  yet  in 

13.  !.  15. 


144  Cyprian  :  The  Churchman. 

their  first  birth  of  earth,  may,  being  born  of  water 
and  of  the  Spirit,  begin  to  be  of  heaven." 

The  petition  as  to  our  daily  bread  Cyprian  in- 
terprets as  referring  to  ordinary  food  and  wealth 
and  to  the  Eucharist.  In  the  one  case  we  must  not 
long  for  earthly  food,  for  riches  are  deceitful  and 
vanishing,  besides  being  a  snare  to  the  soul.  He 
takes  literally  Matt,  vi,  34.  The  Christian  is  "pro- 
hibited from  thinking  of  the  morrow ;  it  is  a  contra- 
diction and  a  repugnant  thing  for  us  to  seek  to  live 
long  in  the  world  since  we  ask  that  the  kingdom 
of  God  should  come  quickly."  The  true  daily  bread 
is  the  Eucharistic  food  of  salvation,  which  we  re- 
ceive daily.  This  is  the  body  of  Christ  referred  to 
in  John  vi,  53,  58.  If  we  remain  separate  from 
Christ's  body  as  thus  interpreted  we  can  not  be 
saved.8  Here  we  have  a  foundation  of  monasticism 
on  the  one  hand  and  of  the  highest  sacramentarian- 
ism  on  the  other. 

"Forgive  us  our  debts"  makes  the  spirit  of  love, 
the  spirit  which  forgives  our  enemies,  absolutely  in- 
dispensable to  salvation  or  to  the  reception  of  any 
spiritual  grace.  No  sacrifice  is  as  important  as  this. 
Even  the  blood  of  martyrdom  can  not  help  us  here. 
But  Cyprian  can  not  help  bringing  in  even  under 


8  De  Dom.  Orat.  18,  19. 


Tin:  Lord's  PfcAYEB.  [45 

this  head  the  great  principle  of  unity.    "(  Nir  peace 

and  brotherly  agreement  ia  a  greater  sacrifice  to 
God, — and  a  people  united  in  one  in  the  unity  of 

the  father,  and  of  the  Son.  and  of  tin-  Holy  Spirit. "J 

Cyprian  has  a  beautiful  thought  in  regard  to  the 

petition,  "Suffer  us  not  to  be  led  into  temptation," 

when  he  says  that  that  takes  away  all  boasting.  We 
can  not  assume  anything  to  ourselves  in  confession 
or  suffering.  "All  is  attributed  to  God,  and  what- 
ever is  sought  for  suppliantly  with  fear  and  honor 
of  God,  may  be  granted  by  I  lis  own  lovingkind- 
ness."1" 

We  have  the  first  witness  to  the  Sursum  Corda 
(upward,  hearts).  When  we  stand  praying,  says 
Cyprian  (standing  was  the  usual  posture  of  prayer 
in  the  ancient  Church,  and  always  on  Sunday  ),  we 
ought  to  be  watchful  and  earnest  with  our  whole 
heart,  intent  on  our  prayers.  The  soul  must  think 
On  nothing  but  the  object  of  its  prayer.  "For  this 
reason  also  the  priest,  by  the  way  of  preface  before 
his  prayer,  prepares  tin-  minds  <»t"  hi-  brethren  by 
saying:  'Lift  up  your  hearts.'  that  so  upon  the  | 

onse,  We  lift  them  up  unto  the  Lord/  he 
may  be  reminded  that  he  himself  ought  to  think  of 
nothing  but  the  J,<  >rd."11 


a.  Oral.  23.  10  Ibid.  26.  Ullml.  31, 

10 


146  Cyprian:  Th£  Churchman. 

Cyprian  closes  with  some  excellent  rules  as  to 
prayer.  (1)  Be  intent  on  what  you  ask.  (2)  Have 
a  background  of  faithful,  holy,  and  loving  living  to 
your  prayers.  Alms  and  good  deeds  are  strong 
backers.  (3)  Observe  regular  hours  of  prayer. 
Daniel  observed  the  third,  sixth,  and  ninth  hour,  "as 
it  were  for  a  sacrament  of  the  Trinity,  which  in  the 
last  times  had  to  be  manifested."1*  Besides  this  we 
must  pray  in  the  morning,  according  to  Ps.  v,  2,  and 
in  the  evening,  because  when  the  light  of  day  de- 
parts we  must  ask  for  the  advent  of  Christ,  who 
shall  give  us  the  grace  of  everlasting  light.  There 
is  no  hour  excepted  for  Christians  wherein  God 
ought  not  frequently  and  always  to  be  worshiped. 
Day  and  night,  therefore,  let  us  pray.13 


12  De  Dom.  Orat.  34,  13  Ibid.  35-6. 


CHAPTER  XII. 
CYPRIAN  THE  CATHOLIC. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  say  that  Cyprian — a  Chris- 
tian than  whom  a  more  sincere  and  devoted  never 
lived — held  to  all  those  ideas  which  the  Churches 
Catholic  and  Protestant  have  in  common.  If  the 
Apostles'  and  Xicene  creeds  had  been  presented  to 
him  he  would  have  assented  to  them  heartily.  All 
the  main  facts  of  Christianity  he  held  to  tenaciously. 
In  this  chapter  an  effort  will  be  made  to  state 
wherein  he  differed  from  evangelical  Protestantism, 
wherein  he  shows  that  the  world  in  which  he  lived 
in  the  middle  of  the  third  century  was  a  Catholic 
world.1*  I  shall  attempt  no  special  logical  arrange- 
ment in  the  order  of  topics. 

Few  Protestants  would  find  fault  with  the  state- 
ment of  the  nineteenth  article  of  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land. That  the  "visible  Church  of  Christ  is  a  congre- 
•l  of  faithful  men,  in  which  the  pure  word  of 


1  I  UM  i!  <     tholic  here  as  the  opposite  of  Protestant, —  t h> --e 

points  in  which  the  Roman,  Greek,  Armenian,  and  other  Eastern  Churches 
agree  among  themselves,  hut  differ  from  Protestantism. 

147 


148  Cyprian:  The  Churchman. 

God  is  preached,  and  the  sacraments  duly  ministered 
according  to  Christ's  ordinance  in  all  those  things 
that  of  necessity  are  requisite  to  the  same."  Here 
the  Church  is  not  the  clergy,  or  the  bishop,  or  a  com- 
pany gathered  around  them,  but  a  collection  of  be- 
lievers in  Christ  who  chiefly  exalt  the  word  of  God, 
and  who  in  their  time  and  place  receive  the  sacra- 
ments. What  was  Cyprian's  view  of  the  Church? 
It  is  a  company  gathered  around  the  bishops,  who 
hold  their  authority  from  the  apostles,  and  chiefly 
from  Peter,  who  received  first  the  commission  of 
authority  from  Christ,  and  so  is  in  a  sense  the  foun- 
dation or  origin  of  unity.  All  apostles  have  equal 
power  with  Peter,  but  since  Peter  was  the  first  who 
was  designated  as  the  rock,  he  makes  the  beginning 
one  and  not  many.  So  although  there  are  many 
bishops  who  preside  in  the  Church,  yet  the  episco- 
pate is  one  and  undivided,  because  it  is  the  one  chair 
of  Peter.2  In  order  to  show  forth  this  unity  there 
can  necessarily  be  onfy  one  bishop  in  a  place,  union 
with  whom  is  the  same  as  union  with  Christ.  The 
Church  is  in  the  bishop  because  he  is  all,  and  to  sep- 
arate one's  self  from  the  bishop  is  death  and  hell.3 
"Does  any  one  believe  that  in  one  place  there  can  be 
either  many  shepherds  or  many  flocks?"4     Those 

2  De  Unit.  Eccl.  4,  5.  3  Ibid.  5,  6.  4  Ibid.  8. 


UAN  tiii:  C aiiioi.ic.  149 

who  separate  from  the  Church  as  thus  understood 
arc  lost  Their  baptisms  are  spurious,  all  their  ap- 
parent Christian  ..  i  the  devil.1  In  fact,  they 
r  do  thus  separate  unless  they  arc  themselves  al- 
.  Their  separate  <n  is  on  account  of  1 
perverse,  strife-loving  heart4    Even  if  they  si. 

themselves  in  martyrdom   for  the  Name,  it 
would  avail  nothing,    "lie  can  not  be  a  martyr  who 

i-  n>  .t  in  the  Church."1 

As  to  baptism,  it  is  not  a  sign  or  seal  »>f  grace 
received  by  faith,  which  is  the  only  effective  means 

of  salvation,  the  root  of  the  whole  process,  \tU{  it  is 
itself  the  ."  salvation.     In  it  we  lay  aside  our 

earthly  birth,  are  freed  from  death  and  the  devil, 
are  cleansed  from  sin,  and  regenerated.  Baptism 
is  the  water  of  salvation  and  the  water  of  life;  by  it 
we  live  again  ;  it  is  the  resurrection  with  Christ,  the 

birth  <>f  Christians,  the  heavenly  and  spiritual  birth, 
the  second  birth,  the  new  birth.    By  it  we  become 

children  of  Cod  and  are  made  into  the  image  of 
God.1      Nothing  COUld  be  more  Catholic  than  I 

nan's  idea  of  baptism.  With  baptism  anointing  was 
connected  as  to-day  in  Catholic  Churches.    "It  is 


«  [bid 

where  refer  :>T»  cditiuu  -c  »utc- 

iliCtll  . 


150  Cyprian:  The  Churchman. 

also  necessary  that  he  should  be  anointed  who  is 
baptized,  so  that,  having  received  the  chrism,  that  is, 
the  anointing,  he  may  be  anointed  of  God,  and  have 
in  him  the  grace  of  Christ."9  This  attachment  of 
spiritual  grace  to  material  means  is  thoroughly 
congenial  to  the  mechanism  of  Catholicism. 

Equally  "high"  is  his  view  of  the  Eucharist.  It 
is  the  "protection  of  Christ's  body  and  blood,  ap- 
pointed to  be  a  safeguard  to  the  receivers  that  they 
may  be  armed  against  the  adversary  with  the  pro- 
tection of  the  Lord's  abundance."10  The  Eucha- 
ristic  bread  is  the  food  of  salvation,  the  bread  of 
heaven,  prefigured  by  the  manna;  the  cup  makes 
us  oblivious  to  the  old  man  and  the  former  evil  life ; 
it  brings  back  spiritual  wisdom ;  it  is  the  intoxicating 
healthgiving  cup  ("the  Holy  Spirit  is  not  silent  con- 
cerning the  sacrament  in  the  Psalms,  making  men- 
tion of  the  cup  of  the  Lord  and  saying,  'Thy  best 
inebriating  cup'  ").  Christ  has  drunk  the  saving 
cup;  his  blood  is  wine,  for  he  says,  "I  am  the  true 
vine."11  Everywhere  in  Cyprian  the  Eucharist  is  a 
true  offering.  It  is  both  a  priestly  self- 
offering  of  Christ,  and  an  offering  in  his  mem- 
ory. As  both  it  is  offered  in  the  Church  of  God 
and  partaken  of.    The  Eucharist  is  the  high  priestly 


9  Ep.  70  (69),  2.  10  Ep..  57  (53),  2.  11  See  K.  G.  Goetz,  67. 


Cyprian  tiu:  Catholic  151 

memorial  offering,  the  offering  of  food  and  drink, 
which  accompanies  the  bloody  offerin  hrist, 

and  therefore,  as  the  old  high  priestly  offering 

'.  is  celebrated  morning  and  evening.  Tt  is  the 
sacrifice  of  the  new  covenant,  and  it  is  valid 
sin-offering.  The  Eucharist  is  the  self-offering  of 
the  Lord,  not  because  it  is  a  memorial  offering  for 
him  on  account  of  his  sufferings,  but  because  in  the 
same  Christ  body  and  blood  arc  indicated  as  bread 

and  wine,  and  in  their  full  meaning  are  made  ap- 
parent and  figuratively  communicated.  "And  be- 
cause, Cyprian,   Mwe   make   mention   of    His 

1011  (  sufferings  and  death  )  in  all  sacrifice,  for  it 
is  the  passion  which  we  offer  as  the  sacrifice  of  the 
Lord;  for  we  ought  to  do  nothing  else  than  He  did. 
For  the  Scripture  says  that  as  often  as  we  offer  the 
cup  in  commemoration  of  the  Lord  and  of  I  lis  pas- 
sion, we  do  the  same  that  it  is  evident  the  Lord 
did."13  It  would  be  too  much  too  say  that  Cyprian 
had  the  fully  developed  sacrificial  conception  of  the 
Eucharist  common  to  later  Catholicism,  hut  he  was 

od  way  on  the  road,  and  he  would  he  perfectly 
at  home  in  the  idea,  if  not  in  the  method,  of  a  1  [igh 


(  I  reliable, though  Ins  divisional  termi 

it   whimsical,   and  !.c    wcll-dcservcd    rcbwl  ..um    in 

Tlicol.  Jal»rc»b    i' 


152  Cyprian:  The  Churchman. 

Church  celebration.     So  the  minister,  or  rather  the 
bishop,  is  always  a  priest  with  him. 

An  interesting  question  is  that  concerning  the 
Churchly  forgiveness  granted  to  the  penitent  lapsed. 
Was  this  an  act  simply  of  earthly  local  jurisdiction, 
such  as  the  taking  back  of  a  sinner  in  a  Protestant 
Church,  a  recognition  by  the  Church  of  what  might 
be  charitably  assumed  to  have  taken  place  between 
the  sinner  and  God,  or  was  it  a  real  judicial  com- 
munication in  the  name  of  Christ  and  in  His  earthly 
place  of  forgiveness  and  peace?  In  other  words, 
was  Catholic  absolution  as  early  as  Cyprian?  On 
one  side  of  the  question  is  Karl  Goetz,  on  the  other 
side  is  Karl  Muller.14  The  former  has  given  us  an 
exceedingly  valuable  pamphlet,  but  I  can  not  but 
think  that  Muller  is  nearer  the  mind  of  Cyprian. 
With  Cyprian  the  Church  is  a  divine  institution  in 
the  fullest  sense.  What  she,  through  her  bishops,  in 
communion  with  her  presbyters,  binds  or  looses  on 
earth  is  bound  or  loosed  in  heaven.  The  Church  is 
the>bride  of  God,  His  house,  His  temple.  To  belong 
to  her,  to  be  at  peace  with  her,  is  essential  to  the 
hope  of  salvation.    These  principles  led  Cyprian  to 


14  Goetz  (to  be  distinguished  from  K.  G.  Goetz),  Die  Busslehre 
Cyprians,  Konigsb.  in  Pr.,  1895 ;  Muller,  "  Die  Bussinstitution  in  Karthago 
unter  Cyprian,"  3d  part,  in  Zeitschrift  f.  Kirchengeschichte,  Oct.  1895 
(xvi.,  187  ff. 


Cyprian  tin:  Catholic  153 

be  more  and  more  lenienl  with  the  lapsed,  in  regard 
to  their  return  to  the  Church,  as  we  have  Been,  [n 
some  way  the  Church  must  try  to  gel  them 
before  they  die.  Peace  with  her  ia  necessary,  i! 
they  would  have  peace  with  God.  i  [er  absolution  of 
the  penitent  holds  before  God.  I  >f  course,  th 
in  the  case  God  has  Himself  forgiven  the  penitent, 

and  to  assure  the  Church  of  that  the  mart 
monies  come  in.    The  role  of  martyrs  ha-  already 
scribed.       Their  part  in  this    feature  of 

Church  life  has  passed  away;  hut  in  all  Catholic 
Churches  it  still  remains  true — whatever  differences 
in  detail  or  in  form  may  he  seen  in  granting  the  al>- 

solution — that    the    Church    as    the    indispensable 

vehicle  of  salvation  hands  out  to  the  penitent  the 
certificate  of  peace,  without  which  (except  to  those 
debarred  without  their  fault)  salvation  is  imp.  6- 
Sible.     This  is  the  eternal  note  of  Catholicism,  and 

it  goes  straight  hack  to  Cyprian.  The  Catholic 
Church  did  well  to  canonize  him.15  The  wholesale 
remission  by   martyrs  or  confes  prian   re- 

pudij  lit  when  the  full  amount  of  penito 

Worl  accomplished,  then  remission  by  mar- 


:ythinK.     .     .     .     I  almost  sin  myself  in  rnnittin. 
more  thM  I 
I 


154  Cyprian:  The;  Churchman. 

tyrs  or  bishops  was  entirely  valid.     In  fact,  it  was 
necessary  if  the  lapsed  should  be  saved.17 

Miiller  calls  attention  to  the  fact  that  all  along  it 
had  been  recognized  that  those  endowed  with  the 
Spirit  could  forgive  sin.18  What  Cyprian  did  was 
to  expand  this  to  include  the  bishops  as  the  divinely 
appointed  heads  of  the  Church,  through  whom  the 
Spirit  spake  as  really  as  through  the  Spirit-gifted 
of  old.  Nor  was  it  new  with  Cyprian  that  outside 
of  the  Church  there  is  no  salvation ;  what  was  new 
was  his  definition  of  unity  as  centered  in  his  kind 
of  bishops.  Even  the  martyr  outside  of  Cyprian's 
kind  of  unity  is  lost.19  Of  course,  no  more  than  in 
the  Catholic  Church  to-day  does  membership  in 
itself  guarantee  salvation,  but  with  Cyprian  the 
earthly  and  heavenly  Church  coincided  thus  far  that 
all  penitents  forgiven  by  the  former  were  received 
by  the  latter,  and  only  those.  Cyprian  never  dreamed 
of  that  modern  gloss  invented  by  Jesuit  and  other 
theologians,  that  one  might  belong  to  the  soul  of 
the  Church  without  actual  membership  in  the  body 
itself,  and  thus  make  a  loophole  for  Protestants. 
With  him  no  piety  or  good  works  outside  of  unity 
avail.  He,  like  the  older  Roman  Catholics,  would 
have  consigned   all   Protestants  to  hell   without   a 


W  Ep.  57  (53)-  i.  ls  Z-  K-G-,  *6,  199.  19  Ep.  55  (51):  17.  *9- 


Cyprian  tih:  Catholic  155 

moment's  hesitation.  The  moderns  in  this  respect 
are  better  Christian-,  hut  worse  Cathol 

It  is  not  meant,  of  course,  that  the  Roman  Cath- 
paraphernalia  of  forgiven  installed  as 

early  as  Cyprian,  That  came  after  a  long  develop- 
ment  But  the  substance  was  there.  The  penitent 
sinner  the  Church  forgave  through  her  bishops,  and 
what  she  U»ose<l  was  loosed  ah 

In  regard  to  merit  also  Cyprian  was  Catholic 
He  had  a  well  defined  plan  of  salvation  which  he 
lies  in  his  hook  "Of  Works  and  Alms."  First, 
there  is  the  atonement  of  Christ.  "The  Father  sent 
the  Son  to  preserve  us  and  give  us  life:  the  Son 
was  willing  to  he  sent  and  t<>  become  the  Son  of 
man  that  He  might  make  us  sons  of  God;  humbled 
Himself  that  lie  might  raise  Up  the  people  who  be- 
fore were  apostate  ;  was  wounded  that  lie  might  heal 
our  wounds ;  served  that  1  fe  might  draw  out  to  lib- 
erty those  who  were  in  bondage;  and  < lie*  1  that  he 
i  set  f<»rth  immortality  to  mortals.-"  Then, 
there  is  baptism  which  through  the  "blood  and  sauc- 
tifieation  of  Christ"  washes  away  the  stains  i^i  venial 
sin,  and  in  the  case  of  adults   (penitence  and   faith 

in  Christ  being  assumed  >  all  the  sins  committed  be- 
baptism.    Now  what  about  Bins  committed  af- 


: 


156  Cyprian:  The:  Churchman. 

ter  baptism  ?  Cyprian  sees  through  the  whole  process 
with  a  lawyer's  clearness.  What  would  we  do,  he 
says,  considering  our  weakness  and  human  frailty, 
"unless  the  Divine  mercy  coming  once  more  to  our 
aid,  should  open  some  way  of  securing  salvation  by 
pointing  out  works  of  justice  and  mercy,  so  that  by 
almsgiving  we  may  wash  away  whatever  foulness 
we  subsequently  contract."21  He  quotes  Prov.  xvi, 
6,  "By  almsgiving  and  faith  sins  are  purged,"22  and 
Ecclesiasticus  iii,  3,  "As  water  extinguished!  fire,  so 
almsgiving  quencheth  sin,"  and  attributes  both 
passages  to  the  Holy  Spirit.  "Here  also,"  he  adds, 
"it  is  shown  and  proved,  that  as  in  the  laver  of  sav- 
ing water  the  fire  of  Gehenna  is  extinguished,  so  by 
almsgiving  and  work  of  righteousness  the  flames  of 
sin  are  subdued.  And  because  in  baptism  remission 
of  sins  is  granted  once  for  all,  constant  and  cease- 
less labor,  following  the  likeness  of  baptism,  once 
more  bestows  the  mercy  of  God."23  Then  by  mis- 
quotation and  misunderstanding  of  Luke  xi,  41,  he 
makes  Christ  responsible  for  this  same  teaching; 
after  we  have  become  foul  after  baptism,  Christ 
teaches  (Cyprian  says)  that  by  alms  we  may  be- 
come clean.24 


21  De  Op.  et  Eleem.  i.  22  Septuagint.  23  De  Op.  et  Eleem.  2. 

24  For  the  interpretation  of  Luke  xi,  41,  see  Meyer  ad  loc ;  and 
Grimm,  N.  T.  Lex.  Ed.  Thayer,  s.  eveifii.  Perhaps  better  still :  things 
within  the  soul;  that  is,  see  that  ye  have  soul  qualities  out  oi  which  ye  can 
eive  alms,  then  your  good  deeds  will  be  acceptable. 


Cyprian  tih:  Cathouc  157 

Cyprian  is  thoroughly  committed  to  a  work-holi- 

Christianity.     This  is  partly  due  to  hia  taking 

the  Old  Testament  Apocrypha  as  law  and  gospel, 
[f  he  had  studied  Paul  more  and  Tobit  less  he  might 
have  reached  different  results.  The  "wholesome 
nmedy  which  God  has  provided  for  the  Curing  <  ; 

our  womids  anew"-*'  is  alms.  In  fact,  by  these  G 
is  propitiated.  "By  works  of  righteousness  God  is 
satisfied,  and  with  the  deserts  of  mercy  sins  are 
ciean^ed."-'  "Prayer  is  good,  with  fasting  and 
alms  ;  because  alms  doth  deliver  from  death,  it  purg- 
eth  away  sins."-7  This  passage,  says  Cyprian,  shows 
that  our  petitions  become  efficacious  by  almsgiving, 
that  life  is  redeemed  from  dangers  by  almsgiving, 
that  souls  are  delivered  from  death  by  almsgiving. - 
The  commercialism  inherent  in  all  forms  of 
Catholicism  comes  out  plainly  in  Ep.  76,  I,  where 
the  reward  to  the  martyrs  in  the  mines  is  graduated 
exactly  according  to  their  hardship  and  tortures — 
"advancing  by  the  tediousness  of  their  tortures  to 
more  ample  titles  of  merits,  to  receive  as  many  pay- 
ments (t<>t  mercedes)  in  heavenly  rewards  as  days 
counted  in  punishments,"  He  has  in  view  the 
"merit  of  religion  and  faith,"  so  that  they  shall  re- 


15  Dc  Op.  et  Kleem.  3.         96  Ibid.  5.  27  Tob.  12 :  8,  9. 

28  Dc  Op.  ct  hi.  5. 


158  Cyprian  :  The:  Churchman. 

ceive  from  the  Lord,  the  "crown  of  their  merits," 
by  which  the  divine  esteem  (divina  dignatio)  has 
honored  them.29 

We  get  the  same  thing  in  the  offerings  of  the 
Lord's  Supper.  Harnack  says  that  Cyprian  has  ad- 
vanced the  idea  of  offering  or  sacrifice  in  the  cultus 
of  the  Church  in  three  ways:  1.  He  assigned  to  a 
specific  priesthood  a  specific  offering,  viz.,  the  offer- 
ing at  the  Lord's  Supper.  2.  He  has  designated  the 
passion  of  the  Lord,  even  the  blood  of  Christ  and 
the  Lord's  host  (dominica  hostia)  as  the  subject  or 
object  of  Eucharistic  offering.  3.  He  has  definitely 
placed  the  celebration  of  the  Lord's  Supper  under 
the  point  of  view  of  the  incorporation  of  the  con- 
gregation and  its  single  members  in  Christ,  and 
was  the  first  to  witness  in  a  distinct  way  that  to  the 
commemoration  of  those  who  make  the  offering 
(the  living  and  the  dead)  a  special  significance  is  to 
be  ascribed;  though  this  is  nothing  but  a  strength- 
ened petition.30  "In  the  sacrifices,"  says  Cyprian, 
"I  offer  prayer  with  many,  remembering  you,"  etc.31 
The  Numidian  captives  were  to  present  the  names 
of  the  donors  to  their  release  in  the  sacrifices  and 
prayers,32  where  sacrifice  means  the  Eucharistic  of- 


29  Dignatio  is  mistranslated  by  Wallis  "  condescension."  It  is  a  recog- 
nition of  worth,  esteem  founded  on  merit.  30  Dogmengeschichte  3.  Aufl. 
I,  428  f ;  Eng.  tr.  II,  136-7.  31  Ep.  37  (15),  1.  32  Ibid.  62  (59),  4. 


:ia.\    Tin:   C  ATUOLIC 


ferin  aid  i,ro  to  the  credit  of  the 

f  the  living.*1    We  must  not  think 

i  f  this  as  the  roll-fledged  Catholic  purgatory  and 

prayers  for  the  release  of  souls  therefrom,  for  there 
was  no  doubt  that  the  martyrs  at  least  were  in  the 
full  felicity  of  Christ :  hut  it  was  the  beginning  of  it 
The  Eucharistic  offering  availed  f<>r  much.    A  man 

ra   for  his  dead  wife  on  the  anniversary  of  her 

h<>me-£oing  in  order,  says  Tertullian,  "to  help  along 

her  eternal  quickening  and  her  participation  in  the 

first  resurrection."    "It  is  the  beginning  of  a  cus- 

tom  which  afterward^  was  built  up  into  the  doctrine 
of  purgatory,  which  was  the  chief  lever  for  charity 
in  the   Middle  Ages,  yes,  the  central  point  around 

which  it  revolves.       From  a  thank-offering    the 

Kucharistic  oblation  becomes  a  work  directed  to 
the  obtaining  of  grao . 

It  seems  also  that  in  Cyprian  we  have  the  rudi- 
ments of  the  doctrine  of  die  treasury  of  merits  laid 
Up  with  God,  out  of  which  help  can  come  to  those 
in  need."'5  He  says  that  the  perogatives  of  the  mar- 
tyrs are  able  to  help  before  God  those  who  have  re- 


»  For  the  livin.-  •;  for  the  dead  39  (33),  3;  12(3' 

*•  I  I  1  in  <Jcr  alien  Kirchc,  1.  And., 

1883,  138. 
8*  Thi»  i»  the  <  ;  !>lc  and  ex  Vcr- 

■ 
^)f.,  138  fl"  . 


160  Cyprian  :  The  Churchman. 

ceived  from  them  letters  of  peace,36 — help  them 
even  with  regard  to  their  sins.37  In  extending  favor 
to  returning  sinners  God  can  have  regard  to  what 
martyrs  have  asked  for  them  or  priests  have  done.38 
Martyrs  have  merits  more  than  sufficient  for  them- 
selves. Their  martyrdom  admits  them  to  glory, 
so  that  all  their  other  holiness,  heroism,  merits, 
fidelity,  etc.,  is  superfluous,  so  far  as  being  neces- 
sary for  them  alone.  It  therefore  goes  to  help  others 
for  whom  they  pray.  This  help  will  especially  ac- 
crue at  the  Day  of  Judgment.  We  believe,  he  says, 
that  the  merits  of  martyrs  and  the  works  of  the 
righteous  are  of  great  avail  with  the  Judge;  but 
that  will  be  when  the  Day  of  Judgment  shall  come, 
when  at  the  end  of  the  world  His  people  shall  stand 
before  the  tribunal  of  Christ.39 

These  intercessions  the  saints  departed  also  offer, 
If  any  of  us  shall  go  hence  the  first,  our  love  may 
continue  in  the  presence  of  the  Lord,  and  our 
prayers  for  our  brethren  and  sisters  not  cease  in  the 
presence  of  the  Father's  mercy.40  O  remember  us, 
he  asks  the  virgins,  when  virginity  shall  begin  to  be 
rewarded  in  you.41 

This  whole  Catholic  doctrine  of  merit  as  founded 


36  Ep.  18  (12),  i.  37  Ibid.  19  (13  ,  2.  38  De  Lapsis,  36. 

39  Ibid.  17,  Cf.  Peters,  Cyprian  von  Karthago,  154-5. 

40  Ep.  60  (56),  5.  41  De  Habitu  Virg.  24. 


Cyprian  thk  Cathouc  161 

1>\  Tertullian  and  Cyprian  is  a  ia  it  is  plausi- 

ble.   We  all  owe  .  ice  ;  noi 

tu  has  rendered  it.    What  we  are  we  have  received, 
and  what  we  have  done  we  haw  done  throu 
grace  rewards  our  good  works,  but  this 

reward  is  of  grace.    The  holiest  martyr  has  done 
only  his  duty,  and  if  that  should  be  I'u:  gainst 

sins,  which  would  weigh  the  heavier?     G 
\\<>rks  are  among  the  indispensable  conditions  of  Bai- 
rn f<>r  those  who  have  opportunity  t"  '1  •  tl 
Use  they  are  the  fruit  of  love,  which  is  the  fruit 

and  test  ol  faith.    But  the  philosophy  of  Christianity 

i.-  in  the  familiar  lit* 

"  Nothing  in  my  li.imN  I  l>rin^, 
Simply  t<>  ThycroM  I  cling 

prian  also  laid  the  foundation  of  monasttcisni. 
Tin-  monastic  s]>irit  breathes  all  through  his  t r< 
"i  >n  the  I  Virgins."    All  who  are  baptized 

have  put   off  the  old  man  in  the  saving  lawr.  and 
have  hern   renewed   by   the   Spirit   in   a  second   na- 
tivity; hut  the  greater  holiness  and  truth  of  that  re- 
el birth  beloo  n  (virgins)  who  have  no 

:'   the    flesh    and    of   the    1 


the  literature   he  refers 

.. 

II 


162  CvrRiAN:  The  Churchman. 

Only  the  things  which  belong  to  virtue  and  the 
Spirit  have  remained  in  you  to  glory.43  There  is  the 
lower  life  for  ordinary  Christians,  and  the  higher 
for  those  who  crucify  the  flesh.  He  tells  the  lapsed 
that  such  sins  as  theirs  require  extraordinary  sever- 
ities. They  must  wear  out  their  nights  in  watchings 
and  wailings,  occupy  all  their  time  in  lamentation, 
lie  on  the  ground,  cling  close  to  the  ashes,  and  be 
surrounded  with  sackcloth  and  filth.  "After  losing 
the  raiment  of  Christ  you  must  be  willing  now  to 
have  no  clothing;  after  the  devil's  meat  you  must 
prefer  fasting;  be  earnest  in  righteous  works 
whereby  sins  may  be  purged ;  frequently  apply  your- 
self, to  almsgiving  whereby  souls  are  freed  from 
death.  .  .  .  Let  all  your  estate  be  laid  out  for 
the  healing  of  your  wound."44  Virginity,  almsgiv- 
ing, poverty,  coarseness  and  scantiness  of  clothing, 
despisal  of  the  world, — all  these  are  specially  mer- 
itorious before  God.45  All  the  roots  of  monasticism 
are  in  Cyprian.  To  live  ascetically,  says  Pontius, 
was  his  highest  ideal.46 


43  De  Hab.  Virg.  23.  44  De  Lapsis,  35. 

3-*  46  See  Wirth,  65,  with  notes.  46  Vita  Cypriani,  2.    See  Boh- 

'"ringer,  835.^ 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

WAS   CYPRIAN   A  ROMAN   CATHOLIC? 

\\'i:  must  not  suppose  thai  Cyprian's  Catholicism 
was  that  of  later  times.  Ever  and  anon  Christian 
sentiments  burst  forth,  and  principles  both  in  doc- 
trine and  life  thoroughly  in  accordance  with  the 
Gospel.  For  it  is  written,  he  Bays,  that  the  just  shall 
live  by  faith.  If  ye  are  jnst  and  live  by  faith,  if  you 
truly  believe  in  Christ,  why,  since  you  are  about  to 
Ik  with  Christ,  and  die  secure  i>(  the  Lord's  prom- 
ise, do  you  not  embrace  the  assurance  that  ye  are 
called  to  Christ,  rejoiee  that  ye  are  freed  from  the 
devil?1      Though    such    passages    are    rare,    though 

Cyprian  looks  upon  justification  in  a  thoroughly 
!•  gal  way,  as  Wirth  has  abundantly  shown  in  his 
section  on  his  use  ^i  jUStificare,  Justus,  justitia.2 
though  the  idea  of  merit  is  hardly  absent  in  am   of 

these  pai  yet  it  was  the  Catholicism  of  the 

middle  of  the  third  century  <  not  even  of  the  fourth  ) 
which  Cyprian  represents.     There  is  no  purgatory 


1  l>c  Mortal.  3.  ■:,.  i38  ff. 

163 


164  Cyprian:  The  Churchman. 

in  his  writings,  though  there  is,  as  we  have  seen,  the 
helpful  intercession  of  saints  here  and  hereafter. 
God's  people  depart  immediately  at  death  to  the 
celestial  land  to  be  with  Christ.  This  is  the  under- 
tone everywhere  of  his  book  on  "Mortality." 
This  does  not  mean  that  the  dead  could  not  be  bene- 
fited by  the  prayers  and  eucharistic  commemora- 
tions of  the  living,  for  such  commemorations  were 
well  established  in  Cyprian's  time.  "We  always 
offer  sacrifices  for  them,  as  you  remember,  as  often 
as  we  celebrate  the  passions  and  days  of  the  martyrs 
in  the  annual  commemoration."3  A  man  had  ap- 
pointed a  clergyman  executor  to  his  estate,  contrary 
to  the  action  of  some  council,  and  Cyprian,  with  his 
high  priestly  views,  thought  that  these  secular 
duties,  which  ministers  then  and  long  afterwards 
performed,  interfered  with  their  calling,  and  he 
therefore  advises  that  "no  offering  shall  be  made 
to  him,  nor  any  sacrifice  be  celebrated  for  his  re- 
pose." No  prayer  shall  be  made  in  the  Church  for 
him.4  It  therefore  appears  that,  though  the  offer- 
ings for  the  martyrs  were  in  the  nature  of  commemo- 
rative thanksgivings  and  not  to  alleviate  their  lot 
(for  they  went  immediately  into  full  felicity),  yet  it 
was  believed  that  for  others  prayers  and  sacrifices 


3  Ep.  39  (33),  3.     See  also  12  (36),  2.  4  Ibid.  1  (65),  2. 


Was  Cyprian  a  Roman-  Catholic] 

could  conduce  to  their  repose,— where  we  have  the 
germs  of  the  mediaeval  purgatory,  indulgen 

There  is  no  mariolatry  in  Cyprian.     [f  Man's 

name  is  ever  mentioned,  it  is  only  casually. 

The  chief  question  is  Cyprian's  relation  to  the 
see  of  Rome.     Did  he  acknowledge  the  bishop  of 
as  supreme  pontiff  of  the  Church,  whose  au- 
thority as  a  ruler  and  infallibility  as  a  teacher  must 
led  at  all  hazards?    We  have  already 

that  Cyprian's  conception  of  the  Church  was  that 
of  an  organization  grouped  around  the  bishops. 
The  bishop  was  the  center  of  the  Church,  and  each 
bishop  was  co-ordinate  with  every  other.  Their 
united    decision    in    council    was    binding    on    the 

once  which  the\-  represented,  though  in  mat- 

of  conscience  each  bishop  could  take  his  own 

hue.  so  long  as  he  remained  in  external  unity  with 

brethren.    There  could  only  he  one  canonically 

elected  bishop  in  a  town.  If  another  is  elected  he  is 
by  that  very  fact  outside  of  the  Church,  outside  of 
Salvation,  outside  of  the  covenanted  mercies  of  God. 
•They  are  a  Church,  who  are  a  people  united 

priest,  and  the  tlock  which  adheres  to  it>  pastor. 

Whence  yOO  OUght  t"  know  that  the  bishop  is  in  the 

Church,  and  the  Church  in  the  bishop;  and  if  any 

One  he  not  with  the  bishop,  he  is  DOt  in  the  Church. 


166  Cyprian:  The  Churchman. 

The  Church  which  is  catholic  and  one  is  not  cut 
nor  divided,  but  is  indeed  connected  and  bound  to- 
gether by  the  cement  of  priests  who  cohere  with 
one  another."5  "There  is  one  God,"  he  says,  "and 
one  Christ,  one  altar,  one  priesthood,  and  one  chair 
founded  upon  the  rock  of  the  word  of  the  Lord."6 
That  was  the  chair  of  Peter  upon  which  the  Church 
was  to  be  built.  Now  the  question  is  :  Is  that  chair 
the  see  of  Rome  to  which  all  must  be  obedient,  from 
which  all  must  receive  law,  or  is  it  the  episcopate 
which  traces  its  descent  back  to  the  apostles,7  and 
especially  to  Peter  as  the  first  in  time  to  whom 
Christ  granted  authority  in  the  Church?  Or  if 
agreement  with  the  chair  of  Peter  (Rome)  is  neces- 
sary, is  it  only  when  that  chair  remains  in  union 
with  the  Christian  tradition  and  the  universal  epis- 
copate ?  In  the  last  analysis,  who  rules  the  Church, 
the  episcopate  or  the  Roman  bishop  ? 

The  bishops  demand  and  weigh  the  evidence  of 
the  election  and  fitness  of  Cornelius  as  Bishop  of 
Rome,  and  only  after  that  do  they  acknowledge  him. 
They  labor  to  maintain  the  unity  delivered  by  the 
Lord  through  His  apostles  and  to  us,  his  successors, 
and  it  is  ours  to  gather  in  the  wandering  sheep,8 — 

5  Ep.  66  (68),  8.  Priest  and  priesthood  generally  mean  bishop  and 
episcopate  with  Cyprian.  6  Ibid.  43  (39),  5. 

7  "Christ  says  to  the  apostles,  and  thereby  to  all  chief  rulers  who  by 
vicarious  ordination  succeed  to  the  apostles,"  66  (68),  4.  8  45  (41),  3. 


Was  Cyprian  a  Rohan  Catholic?      167 
e  which  makes  the  episcopate  the  guardians 

of  unity.     The  bishop  of  Rome,  however.  18  part  of 

that  unity,  and  they  therefore  feel  it  necessai 

support  him.''  him  who  occupies  the  plac<-  of  Peter 
and  the  grade  or  degr<  lus)  of  tin-  sacerdotal 

chair.1"     Rome  is  the  chair  of  Peter  and  the  chief 
(principalis)  Church,  whence  sacerdotal  unity  takes 

its  ri>e.n — one  of  those  delightful  coinplimentar 

ions  which  may  mean  much  or  little,  and  whose 
tling  must  after  all  he  interpreted  by  the  whole 
life  history  of  the  man  who  used  it.  and  who  evi- 
dently did  not  place  all  the  weight  on  it  a  later 
Roman  would,  for  in  this  very  letter  he  denounces 
those  who  carry  appeals  from  Africa  to  Rome,  as 
though  (he  says  sarcastically)  the  authority  of  the 
bishops  in  Africa  seems  too  little.     But  even  Peter, 

Cyprian,  whom  first  (primum)  the  Lord  ch 
ami  Upon  whom    He  built   Mis  Church,  when    Paul 
disputed  with  him  concerning  circumcision,  did  not 
claim  anything  to  himself  insolently,  nor  arrogantly 

;ie  anything  SO  as  to  say  that  he  held  the  pri- 
macy, or  that  he  OUght  to  be  obeyed  by  novices  and 
those  lately  come,1-' — from  which  it  is  apparent  that, 
although    in    Cyprian's    mind    Peter    had    a    certain 


48   44,  3.  1"  Kp.  55  '51),  8.  11  Kp.  5.;    54,  14. 

.  3- 


168  Cyprian:  The:  Churchman. 

primacy  (not  necessarily  the  same  as  supremacy), 
it  did  net  show  itself  either  in  the  Tightness  of  his 
opinions  or  in  his  insisting  on  them. 

Another  interesting  passage  seems  to  confirm 
the  impression  already  received  that  Peter's  primacy 
was  due  to  simple  priority  in  time,  that  thus  he  was 
the  source  of  unity,  but  that  in  all  substantial  re- 
spects other  apostles  were  fully  equal  to  him.  He 
is  speaking  of  the  power  of  remitting  sins  in 
baptism.  He  says  that  "first  of  all  the  Lord  gave 
that  power  to  Peter,  upon  whom  He  built  the 
Church,  and  whence  he  appointed  the  source  of 
unity — the  power,  namely,  that  whatsoever  he 
loosed  on  earth  should  be  loosed  in  heaven.  After 
the  resurrection  He  speaks  to  the  apostles,  saying 
(here  he  quotes  John  xx,  21-23).  Whence  we  per- 
ceive, says  Cyprian,  that  all  those  who  are  set  over 
the  Church  and  established  in  the  Gospel  law,  are 
allowed  to  baptize  and  to  give  remission  of  sins 
(not  those  outside).  Here  the  primacy  of  all  the 
apostles  is  made  co-ordinate  in  spiritual  functions 
with  the  prior  chronological  primacy  of  Peter.13 
The  token  or  source  of  unity  is  Peter,  because  to  him 
alone  the  charge  was  first  given;  but  the  powers 


13  Ep.  73  (72),  7.      The   same   thought    is  in   Firmilian   to   Cyprian, 

75   (74),   16. 


Was  Cyprian  a  Roman  Catholic?       169 

thus  given  were  subsequently  shared  by  all  abso- 
lutely alike.    That  is  Cyprian's  thought. 

More  interesting  still  is  the  inference  of  Firmil- 
ian,  who  echoes  Cyprian,  that  the  Roman  bishop  is 
only  in  the  succession  of  Peter  when  he  is  true  to 
Peter's  doctrine.  He  is  denouncing  Stephen,  the 
bishop  of  Rome,  for  advocating  the  efficacy  of  bap- 
tism by  heretics.  "Nor  does  he  (Stephen)  under- 
stand "that  the  truth  of  the  Christian  rock  is  over- 
shadowed and  in  some  measure  abolished  by  him 
when  he  thus  betrays  or  deserts  unity."14 

Nor  does  it  appear  that  this  general  result  is 
affected  by  the  famous  passage  in  his  early  book 
(251),  the  "De  Unitate  Ecclesise,"  even  with  the 
alleged  interpolations  (in  italics),  which  I  now  cite: 

The  Lord  said  unto  Peter  (here  follows  Matt, 
xvi,  18,  19).  And  to  the  same  He  says  after  His 
resurrection,  Feed  My  sheep.  He  builds  His 
Church  upon  that  one  and  to  him  intrusts  His  sheep 
to  be  fed.  And  although  after  His  resurrection  He 
assigns  equal  power  to  all  His  apostles  and  says 
(cites  John  xx,  21-23).  Nevertheless  in  order  to 
make  the  unity  manifest  He  established  one  chair, 
and  by  His  own  authority  appointed  origin  of  the 
same  unity  beginning  from  one.     Certainly  the  rest 


14  Ep.  75  (74),  17. 


170  Cyprian:  The  Churchman. 

of  the  apostles  were  that  which  Peter  also  was, 
endued  with  equal  partnership  both  of  honor  and 
office,  but  the  beginning  sets  out  from  unity,  and 
primacy  is  given  to  Peter  that  one  Church  of  Christ 
and  one  chair  may  be  pointed  out;  that  all  are 
apostles,  and  one  flock  is  shown  to  be  fed  by  all  the 
apostles  with  one-hearted  accord — that  one  Church 
of  Christ  may  be  pointed  out.  It  is  this  Church 
which  the  Holy  Spirit  in  the  person  of  the  Lord 
speaks  of  in  the  Song  of  Songs,  saying :  "My  dove 
is  one,  My  perfect  one,  one  is  she  to  her  mother, 
elect  to  her  who  brought  her  forth."  He  who  holds 
not  this  unity  of  the  Church,  does  he  believe  that 
he  holds  the  faith?  He  who  strives  and  rebels 
against  the  Church,  he  who  deserts  the  chair  of 
Peter  on  which  the  Church  is  founded,  does  he  trust 
that  he  is  in  the  Church?15 

Here  we  have  the  Cyprianic  principles  of  unity 
just  as  in  his  Epistles,  (i.)  Unity  springs  from 
Peter,  because  he  was  the  beginning  of  these  grants 
of  power  from  Christ.  We  must  hold,  therefore, 
with  him.  (2.)  Exactly  the  same  power  was  given 
to  all  the  apostles,  who  derive  this,  not  from  Peter, 
but  from  Christ.  But  in  true-hearted  accord  they 
stand  in  with  Peter,  whose  chair  is  the  beginning 


15  De  Unit.  Eccl.  4.     For  full  textual  apparatus  see  Benson,  549-52. 


Was  Cyprian  a  Roman  Cathouc?       171 

and  symbol  of  unity.  Nothing  is  said  here  about  the 
authority  and  the  infallibility  of  the  bishops  of 
Rome,  whether  those  bishops  might  not  err,  or  if 
they  did  what  should  be  the  proper  attitude  toward 
them.  If  the  italicized  words  are  really  interpolated, 
would  they  not  have  stated  the  Roman  claims  more 
explicitly,  would  they  not  have  echoed  later  con- 
troversies, would  they  have  simply  been  content  to 
round  out  the  passage  to  bring  it  into  harmony  with 
later  utterances  of  Cyprian  ?  It  is  by  no  means  true 
that  Cyprian  is  represented  here  as  teaching 
the  cardinal  doctrine  of  the  Roman  see.16  It  is  a 
cardinal  teaching,  but  it  is  not  her  special  doctrine. 
Protestants  believe  that  the  Church  was  founded 
upon  Peter  in  a  special  sense,  historically  shown 
by  his  work  with  the  Jews  in  Acts  ii  and  with  the 
Gentiles  in  Acts  x.  They  believe  it  is  necessary  to 
hold  with  him  in  order  to  be  in  the  unity  of  the 
Church,  and  they  believe  firmly  that  if  the  chief 
pastors  in  Rome  had  always  remained  true  to  him, 
unioiuwith  them  would  also  be  in  a  sense  a  symbol 
and  test  of  unity.  There  is  nothing  specially  Roman 
in  the  full  text,  interpolated  or  not,  in  the  Unity  of 
the  Church. 

The  real  questions  are :    Did  Cyprian  hold  that 


16  Benson  is  wrong  here,  203. 


172  Cyprian:  The  Churchman. 

the  bishop  of  Rome  had  in  himself  plenary  authority 
in  the  Church?  That  he  was  an  infallible  teacher? 
That  all  bishops  are  under  him  and  hold  from  him  ? 
In  other  words,  did  the  fact  that  Peter  was  the  be- 
ginning and  foundation  of  unity  guarantee  the  later 
claims  for  those  who  were  supposed  to  sit  on  his 
seat?  Two  or  three  facts  from  Cyprian's  life  will 
answer  these  questions. 

Two  Spanish  bishops,  Basilides,  of  Leon,  and 
Martial,  of  Merida,  had  received  certificates  of  idol- 
atry, and  thus  according  to  the  custom  of  the  Church 
had  debarred  themselves  for  life  from  office.  Ba- 
siiides  had  also  blasphemed  Christ  in  sickness,  and 
Martial  had  joined  a  pagan  guild  or  college  with 
its  heathen  rites,  and  had  two  of  his  children  buried 
with  these  rites.  They  subsequently  repented,  went 
to  Rome,  and  apparently  received  assurances  from 
Stephen,  the  new  bishop  there,  that  he  would  still 
regard  them  as  bishops.  Cyprian  apologizes  for 
Stephen  on  account  of  distance  and  ignorance 
("went  to  Rome  and  deceived  Stephen  our  col- 
league, placed  at  a  distance,  and  ignorant  of  what 
had  been  done,  and  of  the  truth,  to  canvass  that  he 
[Basilides]  might  be  replaced  unjustly  in  the  epis- 
copate"). This  created  a  new  situation.  Who 
were  the  real  bishops  of  Leon  and  Merida — the  de- 


Was  Cyprian  a  Roman  Cathouc?       173 

posed  bishops,  bishops  recognized  still  by  Stephen, 
or  their  successors,  lawfully  elected  and  dedicated? 
For  advice  as  to  this  the  Churches  themselves  ap- 
peal not  to  Stephen,  but  to  Cyprian  and  his  African 
brethren.  A  council  is  held  at  Carthage,  254  (the 
Fourth  Cyprianiac  Council),  and  the  result  is  given 
in  Cyprian's  letter  6j. 

This  is  a  most  interesting  letter.  It  gives  Cyp- 
rian's answer  to  the  question,  Does  grave  sin  in- 
validate ministerial  acts?  He  answers  with  an 
emphatic  Yes — buttressed  as  usual  with  Old  Testa- 
ment passages  like  Ex.  xix,  22 ;  xxviii,  43.  And  all 
who  can  unite  with  such  a  priest  share  in  his  defile- 
ment. The  letter  also  shows  that  the  laymen  of  the 
local  Churches  must  be  present  at  the  election  of  a 
bishop,  not,  it  would  appear,  formally  to  elect  by 
casting  votes,  but  to  investigate  as  to  character  of 
the  nominee  and  to  signify  to  the  bishops  present  as 
to  his  fitness, — the  final  decision  being  with  the 
clergy  and  bishops  present,  but  never  without  the 
presence  and  co-operation  of  the  laymen.  Some- 
times the  laymen,  as  we  have  seen,  played  the  con- 
trolling role.  The  neighboring  bishops  laid  on  hands 
in  consecration.  But  the  significance  of  the  letter 
here  is  that  Stephen's  part  in  this  Spanish  business 
is  brushed  aside  as  of  no  account  whatever,  and  de- 


174  Cyprian:  The  Churchman. 

cision  given  according  to  the  well-known  Cyprianic 
principles,  as  though  there  were  no  Roman  bishop 
in  the  world.17 

Marcian,  bishop  of  Aries  in  France,  had  joined 
the  Novatians  so  far  as  not  to  admit  the  lapsed, 
however  penitent  and  desirous.  As  this  in  Cyprian's 
opinion  endangered  their  souls,  he  was  much  exer- 
cised over  it.  A  bishop  of  Lyons  had  called  his  at- 
tention to  it.  If  the  neighboring  bishops  would  not 
do  their  duty  in  electing  a  successor  to  Marcian,  it 
was  the  bishop  of  Rome's  duty,  as  the  bishop  of 
the  nearest  so-called  apostolic  see  and  of  the  great- 
est Church  of  the  West,  to  urge  them  to  do  it.  But 
Stephen  was  apparently  unconcerned.  Therefore 
Cyprian  writes  him,  calling  his  attention  to  the 
moral  responsibility  of  all  the  bishops  of  the  uni- 
versal flock,  and  urging  him  to  write  to  the  laymen 
of  the  Aries  Church  to  the  effect  that  Marcian  be 
excommunicated  and  another  substituted.  He  is 
also  asked  to  write  to  the  bishops  of  the  province 


17  Ep.  67.  Peters  (Cyprian  von  Karthago,  483)  is  in  error  in  saying 
that  on  the  return  of  Basilides  from  Rome  most  of  the  Spanish  bishops 
changed  their  attitude  toward  him  and  Martial,  and  acknowledged  them 
as  brothers  in  office.  All  that  Cyprian  says  is  that  "some  among  our  col- 
leagues rashly  hold  communion  with  Basilides"  (67,9),  though  whether 
Stephen's  action  had  anything  to  do  with  it  we  do  not  know.  Peters  also 
says  (p.  486)  that  Cyprian  is  not  giving  a  judgment,  but  an  opinion.  But 
the  utmost  decision  and  positiveness  rings  through  the  letter;  there  is  not 
the  least  consciousness  of  a  revision  of  its  judgment  being  possible. 


Was  Cyprian  a  Roman  Catholic?       175 

to  see  to  it  that  Marcian  no  longer  "insults  an  as- 
sembly." It  does  not  appear  that  Stephen's  action 
would  be  different  from  that  of  any  other  promi- 
nent bishop  in  urging  discipline  on  neighboring 
Churches.  Cyprian's  whole  letter,  with  its  freedom 
of  address  and  consciousness  of  equality,  does  not 
bespeak  the  papacy  in  the  historic  sense.18  The  re- 
mark of  Peters  that  Cyprian  here  acknowledges 
Stephen's  ordinance  and  immediate  jurisdiction  over 
the  whole  Church  is  so  nearly  made  out  of  whole 
cloth  that  it  may  be  taken  as  a  type  of  such  state- 
ments made  by  Roman  partisan  historians.19 

The  most  famous  case,  however,  is  the  quarrel 
with  Stephen  over  the  baptismal  question,  and  that 
deserves  a  separate  chapter. 


18  Ep.  68  [66). 

19  Peters,  479.  My  judgment  of  this  whole  aspect  of  Cyprian's 
Catholicism  is  borne  out  by  K.  G.  Goetz,  who  says  that  for  Cyprian  the 
"  basis  of  the  Church  is  an  intellectual  legal  conception  which  expresses 
itself  in  the  political  institution  of  the  episcopate  as  a  college,  as  a  body 
(corpus),  not  of  the  Roman  episcopate  alone."  He  says  that  the  fact  that 
Cyprian  designates  the  universal  episcopate  as  a  college  (collegium)  shows 
that  he  ascribes  to  all  the  bishops  equal  power  and  equal  right  (Recht),and 
he  quotes  Mommsen  (Abriss  d.  rom.  Staatsrecht,  120;  as  saying  that  the 
"  fact  of  being  in  a  college  (Collegialitat)  demands  the  equality  in  rights  of 
the  officers  in  the  college,  therefore  the  equal  title  and  equal  authority  in 
office."  See  Goetz,  Das  Christentum  Cyprians,  128,  and  note.  Substan- 
tially the  same  view  comes  out  in  the  thorough  study  of  a  Roman  Catholic 
scholar,  J.  Delarochelle,  L'idee  de  1'eglise  dans  St.  Cyprien,  in  Etudes 
d'Hist.  et  deLitter.  relig.  1896,  No.  1,  519-33.  Though  the  Roman  bishop 
was  the  official  representative  of  unity,  all  bishops  were  equal  in  power 
and  honor.  He  says  that  Cyprian's  conception  of  the  Church  was  an 
imperfect  one,  and  did  not  comport  with  the  fact  of  the  Roman  primacy. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

THE  GREAT  CONTROVERSY  WITH 
ROME. 

It  was  the  universal  belief  in  the  third  century 
that  baptism  washed  away  the  stain  of  original  sin, 
made  the  baptized  a  child  of  God,  and  thus  brought 
him  into  the  family  of  the  redeemed.  Along  with 
this  was  the  idea  of  the  Church  as  the  ark  of  salva- 
tion, outside  of  which  all  were  swept  away  by  the 
devouring  floods.  Now  as  soon  as  movements 
arose  which  the  larger  Church  disowned,  or  forced 
out  into  separate  existence,  the  question  arose, 
What  about  the  baptism  administered  by  those  out- 
side, either  by  those  heretical,  or  schismatic,  or 
both?  Does  their  baptism  give  life,  does  it  incor- 
porate into  Christ,  does  their  repetition  of  the  Name 
give  the  blessing  of  the  Name?  If  so  baptism  need 
not  be  repeated;  if  not,  all  baptized  by  heretics  or 
schismatics  must  be  baptized  again,  their  former 
baptism  not  being  a  real  baptism  at  all.  On  the  one 
side  of  this  question  stood  Cyprian,  on  the  other, 
Stephen,  bishop  of  Rome. 
176 


The:  Great  Controversy  with  Rome.     177 

It  must  be  confessed  that  Cyprian  had  the  better 
tradition,  so  far  as  testimonies  attest  it.  Clement  of 
Alexandria  called  baptism  by  heretics  no  proper  and 
genuine  baptism.1  Tertullian  energetically  pro- 
tested on  the  same  side.  Heretics  have  nothing 
common  with  the  Church,  not  the  same  God,  nor  the 
same  Christ,  and  therefore  not  the  same  baptism, 
and  therefore  one  can  not  receive  baptism  from 
them.2  In  the  latter  half  of  the  second  century,  the 
Montanists  of  Asia  Minor,  who  agreed  with  the 
Church  on  all  essential  matters  of  doctrine,  precipi- 
tated a  discussion  of  the  subject,  and  at  synods 
held  at  Iconium  and  at  Synnada,  baptism  outside  of 
the  Church  was  rejected.3  "Heretics  can  neither 
baptize  nor  do  anything  holy  and  with  the  Spirit 
because  they  are  foreign  to  spiritual  and  divine 
sanctity."4  Hippolytus  says  that  Callistus  was  the 
first  to  introduce  a  repetition  of  baptism  in  Rome.5 

We  do  not  know  how  the  controversy  begun. 
The  first  document  seems  to  be  a  letter  of  Cyprian 
to  Magnus,  A.  D.  205,  in  answer  to  a  question 
whether  the   Novatianists  in   returning  to  the   so- 


1  Strom,  i,  19. 

2  De  Bapt.  1$,  written  in  premontanist  period,  says  Bonwetsch,  against 
Benson,  338.  See  the  admirable  article  by  Bonwetsch,  Ketzertaufe  und 
Streit  dariiber,  in  Hauck-Herzog,  Realencyk.  f.  protest.  Theol.  u.  Kirche, 
(1901),  270-5.         3  Eusebius  H.  E.  7  :  7,  5.     Firmilian  in  Cypr.  Ep.  75  (74),  7. 

4  Firmilian,  as  in  rote  3.  5  Philos.  9,  7. 

12 


> 


178  Cyprian:  Th£  Churchman. 

called  Catholic  Church  should  be  rebaptized. 
Cyprian  answers  with  his  usual  decision  and  per- 
emptoriness.  He  never  balks  at  the  fact  that  Novatian 
held  the  Catholic  faith ;  the  mere  fact  that  he  is  out- 
side of  what  he  (Cyprian)  calls  the  Catholic  Church 
decided  the  issue.  He  has  departed  from  "charity 
and  the  unity  of  the  Catholic  Church/'  and  on  the 
ground  of  Matt,  xviii,  17,  he  is  worse  than  a  heathen 
and  a  publican,  because  he  has  ''forged  false  altars, 
lawless  priesthoods  and  sacrilegious  sacrifices,  and 
has  corrupted  names."  The  Church  is  one,  bap- 
tism is  one,  and  baptism  is  in  the  Church  only,  ac- 
cording to  Eph.  v,  26 ;  how  then  can  any  one  outside 
be  cleansed  with  the  saving  laver?  If  any  one  says 
that  they  hold  the  same  Trinity  and  the  same  inter- 
rogatory in  baptizing  as  the  Church — and  Cyprian 
quotes  the  interrogatory,  Dost  thou  believe  the  re- 
mission of  sins  and  life  eternal  through  the  holy 
Church? — then  the  answer  is,  They  lie,  since  they 
have  not  the  Church.  Cyprian  refers  to  the  history 
of  Korah,  Dathan,  and  Abiram,  who  knew  the  same 
God  as  Moses,  yet  because  they  set  up  in  opposition 
to  Aaron,  they  were  punished  for  their  irreligious  and 
lawless  endeavors.  All  who  joined  with  them  were 
punished  also,  as  it  shall  be  also  with  the  schismatics 
and  all  who  follow  them.    How  can  those  without 


The:  Great  Controversy  with  Rome.     179 

the  Holy  Ghost  confer  the  Holy  Ghost,  as  baptism 
does  ?  Baptism  is  the  remission  of  sins,  and  it  is  there- 
fore necessary  that  those  who  baptize  should  have 
the  Holy  Ghost.  But  by  the  fact  that  it  is  the  uni- 
versal custom  of  the  Church  in  receiving  those  bap- 
tized without  to  lay  hands  on  them  that  they  may 
receive  the  Holy  Ghost,  it  is  confessed  that  they 
have  not  the  Spirit.  It  is  certain,  therefore,  that  those 
thus  baptized  have  not  received  the  remission  of 
sins.  To  receive  this,  then,  they  must  be  baptized 
with  the  baptism  of  the  Church,  where  only  re- 
mission of  sins  may  be  had.6 

False  and  arbitrary  exegesis  was  not  wanting. 


6  Ep.  69  (75).  This  epistle  closes  (12-16)  with  an  answer  to  the  ques- 
tion whether  those  who  have  been  sprinkled  on  a  sick-bed  are  sanctified 
(so-called  clinic  baptism).  While  Cyprian  distinguishes  this  from  the  reg- 
ular "washing  of  salvation,"  from  "ecclesiastical  baptism,"  which  at  this 
time  was  always  by  immersion,  he  says  it  is  valid  and  need  not  be  supple- 
mented by  ordinary  baptism.  If  the  clinics  have  had  faith,  if  their  subse- 
quent life  shows  the  reality  of  their  faith,  they  received  the  full  mercy  of 
God.  Nothing  need  be  added.  For  (1)  washing  of  sins  is  a  different  mat- 
ter from  the  washing  of  the  body,  where  water  and  saltpeter  and  the  other 
appliances  are  needed.  "  In  another  way  is  the  heart  of  the  believer 
washed  ;  in  another  way  is  the  mind  of  man  purified  by  the  merit  of  faith." 
(2)  Sprinkling  was  recognized  by  God  as  a  symbol  of  cleansing,  according 
to  Ezek.  xxxvi,  25-6;  Num.  viii,  5-7;  xix,  8-13.  Hence  sprinkling  of  water 
"avails  equally  with  the  washing  of  salvation  ;  and  when  this  is  done  in  the 
Church  (that  is,  in  the  society,  or  in  communion  with  the  Church),  where 
the  faith  both  of  the  giver  and  the  receiver  is  sound,  all  things  hold,  and 
may  be  consummated  perfectly  by  the  majesty  of  the  Lord  and  by  the 
truth  of  faith."  (3)  Facts  show  that  those  "baptized  by  urgent  necessity 
in  sickness,  and  obtain  grace,  are  free  from  the  unclean  spirit,  and  live  in 
the  Church  in  praise  and  honor,"  which  is  a  proof  that  they  have  received 
the  Spirit. 


180  Cyprian  :  The  Churchman. 

"They  have  forsaken  Me,  the  fountain  of  living 
waters,  and  have  hewed  out  broken  cisterns  which 
can  hold  no  water/'7  refers  to  the  schismatics.  Of 
their  baptism  the  warning  applies,  "Keep  thee  from 
strange  water,  and  drink  not  from  the  fountain  of 
strange  water."8  John's  prophecy  of  antichrists 
refers  to  them.9  Can  these  give  the  grace  of  Christ? 
The  water  used  in  baptism  must  first  be  cleansed 
and  sanctified  by  the  priest.  But  how  can  a  schis- 
matic priest  cleanse  when  he  himself  is  unclean. 
"Whatsoever  the  unclean  person  toucheth  shall  be 
unclean."10  Besides,  every  baptized  person  is  also 
anointed  with  oil  so  that  he  may  be  anointed  of  God, 
and  have  in  him  the  grace  of  Christ.  But  the  oil  is 
sanctified  on  the  altar,  where  the  Eucharist  is  of- 
fered; but  how  can  a  heretic  or  schismatic  do  that 
when  he  has  neither  the  Church  nor  the  altar  ?  See, 
too,  what  the  Holy  Spirit  says  in  the  Psalms :  "Let 
not  the  oil  of  the  sinner  anoint  my  head."11  Again 
what  prayer  can  a  priest  who  is  impious  or  a  sin- 
ner offer  for  a  baptized  person  ?  Since  it  is  written, 
"God  heareth  not  a  sinner,  but  if  any  man  be  a 
worshiper  of  God,  and  doeth  His  will,  him  He  hear- 
eth."12 With  such  relentless  logic,  built  on  such 
perverted  Scripture,  did  the  good  bishop  condemn 


7  Jer.  ii,  13.  8  Prov.  ix,  19  (LXX).  9  1  John  11,  18,  19. 

10  Num.  xix,  2.        11  Ps.  cxh,  15  (LXX).  12  John  ix,  31. 


The  Great  Controversy  with  Rome.     181 

the  baptism  of  all  outside  his  episcopal  unity  as 
sacrilegious,  and  their  persons  as  utterly  lost  to 
the  grace  and  mercy  of  God.13  "He  that  is  bap- 
tized by  one  dead,  what  availeth  his  washing?"14 

What  were  the  arguments  of  Stephen?  Unfor- 
tunately we  have  not  an  epistle  of  his  extant.  All 
we  can  do  is  to  get  a  glimpse  here  and  there  of  the 
contrary  arguments  from  the  correspondence  of 
Cyprian.  First,  "they  say  they  follow  ancient  cus- 
tom."15 Cyprian  explains  this  by  the  fact  that  the 
first  heretics  had  previously  been  baptized  in  the 
Church,  and,  of  course,  when  they  returned  it  was 
not  necessary  to  rebaptize  them.  Besides,  he  says, 
no  custom  can  stand  against  reason.  Again  it  is 
said:  He  who  is  baptized  might  receive  remission 
of  sins  according  to  what  he  believed.16  Cyprian 
replies  to  this  that  no  one  can  have  true  faith  out- 
side of  the  Church.  Either  they  are  manifestly 
heretical  like  Marcion  and  other  heretics,  or  they 
are  perfidious,  blasphemous,  and  contentious,  which 
makes  their  faith  no  faith.  Some  quoted  Phil,  i, 
18,  but  that  refers  to  envious  brethren  within  the 
Church,  not  to  baptism  by  those  outside.17  Others 
say :  All  who  are  baptized  anywhere  and  anyhow  in 


13  Ep.  70  (69).  14  Ecclus.  xxxiv,  25,  (Ep.  71  (70),  1). 

15  Ep.  71  (70),  2.  16  Ep.  73  (72),  4.  17  Ibid.  %  14. 


182  Cyprian:  The  Churchman. 

the  name  of  Christ  have  obtained  the  grace  of  bap- 
tism.18 Not  so,  replies  Cyprian,  for  not  every  one 
that  says,  Lord,  Lord,  shall  enter  the  kingdom  of 
heaven.  Only  those  things  which  are  done  in  the 
truth  of  Christ  are  accepted  by  Him.  It  is  said  that 
this  non-acknowledgment  will  debar  heretics  from 
coming  back.  Not  at  all ;  it  will  have  just  the  con- 
trary effect.  Why  should  he  come  back  if  he  has 
true  baptism?  Having  that,  they  will  think  they 
have  everything.  But  when  they  know  that  no  re- 
mission of  sins  can  be  given  outside  of  the  Church, 
they  will  eagerly  hasten  back  to  us.19 

The  two  chief  points  of  Stephen  were  tradition 
and  the  majesty  of  the  Name.  While  Cyprian  will 
not  acknowledge  that  there  is  any  true  tradition  on 
Stephen's  side,  he  makes  a  powerful  plea  against 
tradition  dominating  truth.20  One  can  almost  hear 
the  strains  of  the  old  Protestants  controverting 
Rome.  "What  obstinacy,  what  presumption  to  pre- 
fer human  tradition  to  Divine  ordinance,  and  not  to 
observe  that  God  is  angry  when  tradition  relaxes 
or  passes  by  the  divine  precepts,  as  he  says  by 
Isaiah,  'This  people  honoreth  Me  with  their  lips, 
but  their  heart  is  far  from  Me.     In  vain  do  they 


18  Ep.  73  (72),  16  ff.      In  these  sections  of  this  great  epistle  Cyprian 
argues  cogently  against  the  validity  of  baptism  by  Gnostic  Christians. 

19  Ep.  73   7;  ,  24.  20  Ep.  74  (73).  2-4,  9. 


The  Great  Controversy  with  Rome.     183 

worship  me,  teaching  the  doctrines  and  command- 
ments of  men.'  "  "Nor  ought  custom,  which  had 
crept  in  among  some,  prevent  the  truth  from  con- 
quering, for  custom  without  truth  is  the  old  age  of 
error." 

As  to  the  Name  availing,  they  really  confess  that 
it  does  not  avail,  because  they  (Stephen  and  his 
party)  always  lay  their  hands  on  the  returning 
heretic  that  he  may  receive  the  Holy  Spirit.  But  by 
allowing  his  baptism  they  allow  that  in  a  real  sense 
he  has  already  received  the  Holy  Ghost.  He  has 
been  sanctified,  his  sins  have  been  washed  away,  he 
has  put  on  Christ,  and  can  Christ  be  put  on  without 
the  Spirit,  or  the  Spirit  be  separated  from  Christ? 
Water  alone  is  not  able  to  sanctify,  unless  a  man  has 
also  the  Holy  Spirit.  Later  he  receives  the  Holy 
Spirit  in  fuller  measure  in  the  anointing  and  im- 
position of  hands,  but  this  would  be  impossible  if 
he  had  not  already  been  born  by  baptism  into  the 
Holy  Spirit.21 

As  to  the  merit  of  the  arguments  of  the  two  con- 
testants, it  is  evident  that  if  we  grant  Cyprian's  prem- 
ises we  must  grant  his  conclusions.  No  writings  of 
Cyprian,  except  his  plea  against  the  pagans,  have 
such  power,  vigor,  swing,  and  ring,  as  these  six 


21  Ep.  74  (73),  5-7- 


184  Cyprian:  The.  Churchman. 

epistles.22  No  wonder  the  man  who  wrote  them 
dominated  his  age.  The  Roman  bishops  of  the  time 
are  names  only  who  would  hardly  be  known  were  it 
not  for  Cyprian's  writings.  Besides,  his  premises 
were  the  premises  of  the  Church.  His  main  points 
rested  deep  in  the  ecclesiastical  consciousness  of  his 
time.  No  one  believed  that  a  heretic  could  be  saved, 
or  that  there  was  salvation  outside  of  the  Church. 
What  was  baptism  then,  administered  there?  An 
empty,  unauthorized  rite,  a  sacrilege.  It  could  have 
no  more  saving  efficacy  than  a  boy's  swim.  Its  ac- 
knowledgment as  granting  remission  of  sins  in  view 
of  the  repetition  of  a  formula  was  both  on  the  one 
hand  the  crassest  magic,  and  on  the  other,  the  log- 
ical subversion  of  every  principle  held  by  the  Cath- 
olic Church.  As  a  true  Catholic  and  a  sharp-sighted 
reasoner,  Cyprian  went  straight  to  the  mark.  If 
heretics  had  true  baptism,  they  had  remission  of 
sins;  if  they  had  remission  of  sins,  they  had  sanc- 
tification;  and  if  they  had  sanctification,  they  had 
the  temple  of  God.23  Against  that  Stephen's  feeble 
arguments  broke  as  waves  against  a  rock. 

But  what  do  these  famous  six  letters  teach  as  to 
Cyprian's  attitude  to  the  Roman  bishop  as  the 
teacher  and  ruler  of  Christendom?    Does  the  unity 


22  Ep.  69-74  '75,  69-73).  23  Ibid.  73  (72),  12. 


The:  Great  Controversy  with  Rome:.     185 

of  the  Church  which  goes  back  to  Peter,  and  which 
consists  in  the  mutual  concord  of  forbearance  and 
independence  of  the  bishops,  guarantee  the  purity 
of  doctrine  and  supremacy  of  rule  of  all  who  chance 
later  to  occupy  Peter's  alleged  chair?  Here  the 
great  Carthaginian  holds  another  line.  Throughout 
his  letter  to  Stephen  there  is  not  the  slightest  con- 
sciousness that  he  is  to  defer  to  him.24  He  gives  his 
judgment  on  the  question  at  hand,  and  presents  his 
arguments,  with  not  more  feeling  of  dependence  on 
Stephen's  decision,  than  one  Methodist  bishop 
would  do  in  relation  to  another  in  arguing  for  lay 
delegation,  or  an  Anglican  to  his  brother  bishop 
against  the  compulsory  use  of  the  Athanasian  Creed. 
The  historical  situation  behind  these  six  epistles 
(seven,  counting  the  strong  and  remarkable  letter 
of  Firmilian  to  Cyprian25)  is  as  different  as  day 
from  night  from  that  assumed  in  the  Roman  view. 
If  that  view  is  true,  we  are  as  historians  in  a  topsy- 
turvy world. 

Let  us  hear  Cyprian  himself  on  Stephen.  He 
says  that  faith  and  religion  of  the  sacerdotal  office 
compel  us  to  ask  whether  that  priest  can  render  a 
satisfactory  account  to  God  on  the  day  of  judgment 
who  maintains  the  baptism  of  blasphemers,  and  he 


24  Ep.  72  (71).  25  Ibid.  75  (74). 


x86  Cyprian:  The  Churchman. 

quotes  Mai.  ii,  12,  where  God  says  that  if  priests 
will  not  give  glory  to  Him  He  will  send  a  curse 
upon  them,  and  will  even  curse  their  blessings.  Then 
Cyprian  launches  forth  in  this  terrible  indictment  of 
Stephen,  who,  according  to  the  Roman  view,  is  the 
infallible  teacher  of  all  Christians.  Does  he  give 
glory  to  God  who  communicates  with  the  baptism 
of  Marcion?  Does  he  give  glory  to  God  who 
judges  that  remission  of  sins  is  granted  among  those 
who  blaspheme  our  God?  Does  he  give  glory  to 
God  who  affirms  that  sons  are  born  to  God  without, 
of  an  adulterer  and  harlot?  Does  he  give  glory  to 
God  who  does  not  hold  the  unity  and  truth  that 
spring  from  the  law  divine,  but  maintains  heresies 
against  the  Church?  Does  he  give  glory  to  God, 
who,  a  friend  of  heretics  and  an  enemy  of  Chris- 
tians, thinks  that  the  priests  of  God  who  support 
the  truth  of  Christ  and  the  unity  of  the  Church  are 
to  be  excommunicated?  If  glory  is  thus  given  to 
God,  if  the  fear  and  the  discipline  of  God  is  thus 
preserved  by  His  worshipers  and  priests,  let  us  cast 
away  our  arms ;  let  us  give  ourselves  up  to  captivity ; 
let  us  hand  over  to  the  devil  the  ordination  of  the 
Gospel,  the  appointment  of  Christ,  the  majesty  of 
God ;  let  the  sacraments  of  the  divine  warfare  be 
loosed ;  let  the  standards  of  the  heavenly  camp  be 


The:  Great  Controversy  with  Rome.     187 

betrayed ;  and  let  the  Church  succumb  and  yield  to 
heretics,  light  to  darkness,  faith  to  perfidity,  hope 
to  despair,  reason  to  error,  immortality  to  death, 
love  to  hatred,  truth  to  falsehood,  Christ  to  Anti- 
christ. Deservedly  thus  do  heresies  and  schisms 
arise  day  by  day,  grow  up  more  often  and  more 
fruitfully,  and  with  serpents'  locks  shoot  forth  and 
cast  against  the  Church  of  God  with  greater  force 
the  poison  of  their  venom;  whilst  by  the  advocacy 
of  some,  both  authority  and  support  are  afforded 
them,  whilst  their  baptism  is  defended,  truth  is  be- 
trayed, and  that  which  is  done  outside  against  the 
Church  is  defended  within  the  very  Church  itself.20 
But  letters  were  not  the  only  weapons  used 
against  Rome.  Three  councils  were  held  in  Car- 
thage, 255-6,  the  second  with  seventy-one  bishops, 
the  third  with  eighty-seven  from  the  provinces  of 
Africa,  Numidia,  and  Mauretania,  all  with  presby- 
ters and  deacons  and  laity,  and  reached  a  unanimous 
(in  the  second  and  third,  almost  in  the  first)  con- 
clusion to  baptize  all  heretics  and  schismatics  com- 
ing to  them,  on  the  ground  that  their  former  bap- 
tism was  null  or  profane.27    How  different  this  from 

26  Ep.  74   73.8. 

27  On  the  first  council  see  Ep.  70  (69)  ;  on  the  second  see  72  (71) ;  and 
on  the  third  see  Sententiae  Episcoporum,  or  the  judgment  of  87  bishops  on 
the  baptism  of  heretics  ;the  seventh  council  of  Carthage  under  Cyprian) 
in  Migne  3,  1079-1102,  and  transl.  in  the  Ante-Nicene  Fathers,  Edinb.  ed. 
13,  199  ft-;  N-  Y.  ed.  5,  565  ""• 


188  Cyprian:  The  Churchman. 

the  modern  Roman  theory  by  which  no  council  can 
be  held  without  the  permission  of  the  pope,  and 
when  held  its  conclusions  are  invalid  until  he  in- 
dorses them.     They  did  things  differently  then. 

It  should  be  said  that,  however  intense  Cyprian's 
beliefs  and  feelings  on  this  question,  so  hearty  was 
his  regard  for  the  independence  of  each  bishop,  for 
mutual  respect  and  tolerance  inside  the  Church,  that 
he  said  distinctly  that  no  bishop  is  compelled  against 
his  conscience  to  adopt  his  views  or  those  of  his 
compeers.28  I  prescribe  to  no  one,  says  Cyprian,  I 
prejudge  no  one,  I  prevent  no  bishop  doing  what 
he  thinks  well.  Let  each  have  the  free  exercise  of 
his  judgment.  Charity  and  priestly  concord  must 
be  maintained  with  patience  and  gentleness.29 
Stephen  broke  with  him,  he  did  not  break  with 
Stephen.30 


28  Ep.  69  (75),  17.  29  Ibid.  73  (72)  «6. 

30  On  the  question  whether  Stephen  actually  excommunicated  Cyprian 
the  best  view  is  that  of  Ernst,  "  War  der  HI.  Cyprian  Exkommuniniziert," 
in  Zeitschrift  fur  Katholische  Theologie,  18  (1894)  473  ff.,  that  while  Cyprian 
was  threatened  with  the  Church  ban,  it  never  actually  fell  upon  him.  In 
the  latter  case  a  formal  schism  would  have  taken  place  between  Africa  and 
Rome,  and  this  did  not  happen.  From  a  supposition  expressed  in  Augus- 
tine, it  has  been  supposed  by  some  that  Cyprian  later  retracted  his  senti- 
ments on  this  question.  This  in  an  article  in  the  same  journal,  19  (1895) 
234  ff),  Ernst  also  shows  to  be  unfounded.  Nor  did  Firmilian  and  the 
Asiatic  bishops  ever  retract.  For  the  later  history  of  this  baptismal  strife 
see  the  article  by  Bonwetsch  mentioned  in  note  2,  p.  177,  above. 


CHAPTER  XV. 

THE  CROWNING. 

Cyprian  had  almost  six  years  of  uninterrupted 
activity  in  Carthage  as  a  bishop,  March  or  April, 
251 — June,  257.  But  the  end  was  near.  Valerian, 
an  emperor  of  some  noble  qualities,  who  reigned 
253-60,  was  at  first  friendly  to  the  Christians,  think- 
ing thus  to  win  them.  But  under  the  influence  of 
his  prime  minister,  Macrian,  helped  along  by  the 
vague  terror  of  pestilence  and  barbarian  invasions, 
believing  that  the  close  knit  society — firmly  held  to- 
gether by  the  bishops  in  a  compact  organization  that 
nothing  could  shake — was  a  menace  to  the  unity  of 
the  State,  whose  interior  disunion  through  the  Chris- 
tian Church  within  was  now  meeting  the  disinte- 
gration threatened  by  Franks,  Alemanni,  and  other 
tribes  without — under  this  stimulus  the  patriotic 
Valerian  determined  to  break  up  the  Church  as  an 
organisation.  In  June,  257,  he  issued  his  first  edict 
to  this  end.  There  was  to  be  no  general  persecu- 
tion of  private  Christians,  but  the  united  external 
189 


190  Cyprian  :  Tiid  Churchman. 

life  of  the  Church  was  to  be  destroyed.  All  as- 
semblies of  Christians  were  forbidden,  as  well  as 
meetings  in  graveyards  and  at  the  tombs  of  mar- 
tyrs, and  this  by  penalty  of  death.  The  clergy  were 
to  be  banished  and  in  every  possible  way  isolated 
and  watched.1  The  expectation  was  that,  cut  off 
from  their  leaders,  the  people  would  naturally  and 
inevitably  go  back  to  their  old  gods.  Dionysius,  the 
great  and  pacific  bishop  of  Alexandria,  was  ban- 
ished, and  it  soon  came  Cyprian's  turn.  Genuine 
Acts  give  the  story.2 

The  proconsul  Aspasius  Patcrmis.  The  most 
sacred  emperors,  Valerian  and  Gallienus,  have  done 
me  the  honor  to  send  me  a  dispatch  in  which  they 
have  directed  that  persons  not  following  the  Roman 
religion  must  conform  to  the  Roman  ceremonies.  I 
have,  in  consequence,  made  inquiries  as  to  how  you 
call  yourself.  What  answer  have  you  to  give  me? 
[Xotice  the  method  of  trial  by  interrogation.  Ac- 
cused assumed  to  be  guilty,  and  must  prove  him- 
self innocent.  This  was  the  beauty  of  Roman  law, 
and  was  followed  in  all  the  heresy  trials  to  within 
modern  times.  Happy  the  accused  for  whom  tor- 
ture did  not  also  form  a  part  of  the  question.] 

Cyprian.     I   am  a   Christian  and  a  bishop.     I 

1  Eusebius,  H.  E.  vii,  n;  Cyprian.  Act.  procons,  i. 

2  I  follow  here  the  version  of  Benson,  Cyprian,  465-6. 


The  Crowning.  191 

know  no  other  gods  than  the  one  and  true  'God, 
who  made  heaven  and  earth,  the  sea,  and  all  that  in 
them  is.  He  is  the  God  whom  we  Christians  wholly 
serve.  Him  we  supplicate  night  and  day  for  our- 
selves and  for  all  men  and  for  the  safety  of  the 
emperors  themselves. 

Paternus.    In  this  purpose,  then,  you  persevere? 

Cyprian.  That  a  good  purpose,  formed  in  the 
knowledge  of  God,  should  be  altered  is  impossible. 

Paternus.  Well,  will  it  be  "possible"  for  you,  in 
accordance  with  the  directions  of  Valerian  and 
Gallienus,  to  take  your  departure  as  an  exile  to  the 
city  of  Curubis? 

Cyprian.    I  depart. 

Paternus.  They  have  done  me  the  honor  of 
writing  to  me  not  about  bishops  only,  but  about 
presbyters,  too.  I  would  therefore  know  from  you 
who  are  the  presbyters  who  reside  in  this  city. 
[Compare  the  similar  question  of  Annas  to  Christ, 
John  xviii,  19.] 

Cyprian.  You  have  by  your  own  laws  made 
good  serviceable  laws  against  the  very  existence  of 
informers.  Accordingly  it  is  not  injny  power  to 
discover  and  delate  them.  However,  they  will  be 
found  in  their  several  cities.  [Wise  answer  by  the 
sage  old  lawyer.] 


192  Cyprian  :  The  Churchman. 

Pate  nuts.  My  question  refers  to  this  day  and  to 
this  place. 

Cyprian.  Inasmuch  as  our  discipline  forbids  any 
to  offer  themselves  spontaneously,  and  this  would 
also  go  counter  to  your  legislation,  they  are  unable 
to  offer  themselves.  But  if  you  search  for  them 
they  are  to  be  found. 

Pat  emus.  I  shall  have  them  found.  They  [the 
emperors]  have  directed  further  that  no  assemblies 
are  to  be  held,  and  they  are  not  to  enter  cemeteries. 
So  if  any  one  fails  to  observe  this  salutary  direc- 
tion he  will  be  capitally  punished. 

Cyprian.    Do  as  you  are  directed. 

Then  the  Acts  add:  Thereupon  Paternus  sen- 
tenced the  blessed  Bishop  Cyprian  to  be  deported 
(deportari)  into  exile.3 

This  sentence  carried  with  it  loss  of  citizenship. 
It  required  special  direction  from  the  emperor  be- 
fore it  could  be  inflicted,  and  for  that  reason  the 
proconsul  quoted  the  "prsecept"  of  Valerian  for 
banishing  him  to  Curubis.4 

Curubis  (Kourba)  was  a  little  coast  town  fifty 
miles  from  Garthage  at  the  back  of  the  eastward 
promontory  of  the  Gulf  of  Tunis.  It  was  a  para- 
dise compared  with  some  places  to  which  exiles 
were  sent. 


3  Acta  Proc.  1,  21.  4  See  Benson,  466-7. 


The  Crowning.  193 

The  first  night  in  which  Cyprian  slept  at  Curubis 
he  had  a  dream  of  the  proconsul,  in  which  he  had 
a  premonition  of  his  fate.  It  was  one  of  those 
strange,  circumstantial  dreams  which,  either  by  laws 
of  the  soul  not  yet  fully  understood,  or  by  some 
impression  from  above,  reveals  the  future  with  life- 
like vividness.  Many  instances  of  such  dreams  are 
on  record,  and  thousands  have  occurred  of  which 
the  record  was  hid  in  the  heart  of  the  person  af- 
fected, or  the  matter  told  only  to  immediate  friends. 
Some  explain  them  as  simply  a  coincidence,  others 
bring  in  a  higher  law.5 

Compared  with  Cyprian's  lot  in  exile,  that  of 
nine  of  the  thirty-one  Numidian  bishops  who  had 
sat  with  him  in  council  was  hard  indeed.  They 
were  doomed  to  chained  labor  in  the  mines,  where 
their  treatment  was  so  cruel  that  some  died  under 
it,  and  others  were  in  prison.  They  had  been  beaten 
with  cudgels,  which  showed  that  they  belonged  to 
the  lower  classes,  and  is  at  the  same  time  an  indi- 
cation of  the  democratic  character  of  ancient  Chris- 
tianity as  to  the  orders  in  society  to  whom  it  made 
its  chief  appeal,  and  from  whom  it  drew  its  offi- 
cers. These  bishops,  presbyters,  and  others  "toiled 
in  the  dark  at  piles  of  ore,  choked  with  the  smoke 


&  For  this  dream  see  Pontius,  Vita  Cypriani,  12 ;  Benson,  469-70. 
13 


194  Cyprian  :  The  Churchman. 

of  smelting  furnaces,  half  fed,  half  clothed,  half 
their  hair  dipt  off,  sleeping  on  the  ground."  Cyprian 
contributed  to  their  needs,  and  also  sent  them  a 
letter  full  of  praise  for  their  sufferings  and  heroic 
endurance.  He  says  they  "advance  by  the  tedious- 
ness  of  their  tortures  to  more  ample  titles  of  merit, 
to  receive  as  many  payments  in  heavenly  rewards 
as  days  are  now  counted  in  their  punishments."  The 
Lord  has  lifted  them  to  the  lofty  height  of  glory,  and 
Cyprian  interprets  this  in  noble  and  sympathetic 
spirit  as  but  the  rewards  of  their  fidelity,  seeing 
that  they  have  guarded  the  faith,  kept  firmly  the 
Lord's  commands,  in  simplicity  have  preserved  in- 
nocence, in  charity  concord,  modesty  in  humility, 
diligence  in  administration,  watchfulness  in  help- 
ing those  that  suffer,  mercy  in  cherishing  the  poor, 
constancy  in  defending  the  truth,  and  judgment  in 
severity  of  discipline, — a  description  of  the  model 
minister  or  bishop  as  valid  to-day  as  in  257.  With 
all  Cyprian's  Catholic  sacramentarianism  he  recog- 
nized the  fact  that  now  while  "there  is  given  no 
opportunity  to  God's  priests  for  offering  and  cele- 
brating the  divine  sacrifices,"  they  are  all  the  while 
by  their  sufferings  in  Christ's  name  "offering  a 
sacrifice  to  God  equally  precious  and  glorious,  and 
that  will  greatly  profit  you  in  heavenly  rewards." 


The  Crowning.  195 

He  then  quotes  Ps.  li,  17,  and  says:  "You  celebrate 
this  sacrifice  day  and  night,  being  made  victims  to 
God,  and  exhibiting  yourselves  as  holy  and  un- 
spotted offerings,  as  the  apostle  exalts,"  in  Rom. 
xii,  12.  Thus  it  is  that  "our  works  with  greater 
deserts  are  successful  in  earning  God's  good  will."6 

The  answer  of  the  martyrs  of  the  mines  throbs 
with  loving  appreciation  of  Cyprian,  his  character, 
his  words,  his  example,  and  his  gifts.  By  these 
things  he  has  refreshed  their  suffering  breasts,  has 
healed  their  limbs  wounded  with  clubs,  has  loosened 
their  feet  bound  with  fetters,  has  illuminated  the 
darkness  of  their  dungeon,  has  brought  down  the 
mountains  of  the  mine  to  a  smooth  surface,  and 
shut  out  the  foul  odor  of  the  smoke.7  O  ye  mutual 
sufferers !  your  spirit  of  love  and  unselfish  en- 
durance, your  heroic  constancy  for  Christ,  breathes 
upon  us  across  the  centuries,  shames  our  ease  and 
listless  devotion,  and  stimulates  us  to  do  and  dare 
for  your  Master  and  ours ! 

The  result  of  the  edict  of  257  did  not  suit  Vale- 
rian or  his  councilors.  The  Church  was  not  being 
uprooted  fast  enough.  The  senate  had  apparently 
so  represented  matters  to  the  emperor.  The  latter 
accordingly  sends  a  second  rescript  in  the  summer 


6  Ep.  76.  1  Ibid.  77. 


196  Cyprian  :  The  Churchman. 

of  258.  It  ran  thus  in  its  steel-like  sharpness  and 
precision : 

"That  bishops,  presbyters,  and  deacons  be  im- 
mediately punished  with  death.  Senators  and  men 
of  high  rank  and  knights  of  Rome  forfeit  their  dig- 
nity, be  deprived  of  their  goods,  and  if  after  being 
deprived  of  their  means  they  persist  in  being  Chris- 
tians, be  also  capitally  punished;  their  matrons  be 
deprived  of  their  goods  or  relegated  into  exile ;  and 
that  all  Caesareans  [inferior  officers  of  the  fiscus, 
or  imperial  treasury,  who  were  under  the  rationalis 
or  chancellor  of  the  exchequer]8  who  have  either 
confessed  before  or  confess  now  suffer  confiscation, 
be  put  in  bonds,  entered  in  the  slave  lists,  and  sent 
to  work  on  Caesar's  estates."9 

It  is  evident  that  the  author  of  this  edict  in- 
tended to  destroy  Christianity  root  and  branch.  "It 
is  plain  that  the  higher  ranks  were  felt  to  be  honey- 
combed by  Christianity,"  which  shows  that  with  all 
its  attraction  to  the  poor,  Christianity  was  universal 
in  its  appeal  and  power,  "while  the  special  provision 
about  the  Caesarians  illustrate  the  kind  of  employ- 
ments into  which,  as  free  from  idolatrous  taint,  the 


8  Caesariani  were  not  palace  officers,  as  often  understood,  nor  "people 
of  Caesar's  household, "as  Wallis  translates,  but  under-officials  of  the  treas- 
ury. See  Benson,  note  8,  p.  480,  whose  legal  and  antiquarian  information 
is  accurate  and  minute.  9  Ep.  80  (81),  1 


The  Crowning.  197 

Christians  crowded."  And  the  edict  was  imme- 
diately put  into  effect.  Confiscation  and  executions 
began  at  once.  Sixtus  (Xistus  or  Xystus),  bishop 
of  Rome,  visited  a  forbidden  cemetery  on  Sunday, 
August  6,  258,  and  was  then  and  there  put  to  death, 
along  with  four  of  the  seven  deacons  of  the  city. 

Rumors  of  an  impending  change  in  policy  had 
been  rife,  and  to  secure  the  facts  Cyprian  had  dis- 
patched messengers  to  Rome  to  find  out  "in  what 
manner  it  had  been  decreed  respecting  us."  Almost 
before  the  edict  had  reached  Africa,  Cyprian  knew 
its  exact  purport.  He  wrote  immediately  to  a 
brother  bishop,  Successus,  who  was  himself  soon 
martyred,  gave  him  the  terms  of  the  rescript,  the 
latest  news  from  Rome  as  to  its  execution,  and 
urged  him  and  his  brethren  to  constancy.  Let  these 
things  be  made  known  to  our  colleagues,  he  says, 
that  everywhere  the  brotherhood  may  be  strength- 
ened and  prepared  for  the  spiritual  conflict,  that 
every  one  of  us  may  think  less  of  death  than  of 
deathlessness,  and,  dedicated  to  God,  with  full  faith 
and  courage  may  have  no  dread,  only  gladness,  in 
this  confession,  in  which  we  know  the  soldiers  of 
God  and  Christ  are  not  slain  but  crowned.10 

The  new  proconsul  Galerius  Maximus,  on  re- 


10  Ep.  80  (81),  2. 


198  Cyprian:  The:  Churchman. 

ceiving  the  rescript,  summoned  Cyprian  from  his 
exile  in  Curubis  to  appear  before  him.  Apparently 
by  illness  Galerius  was  detained  at  Utica,  twenty 
miles  northwest  of  Carthage.  He  ordered  Cyprian 
to  keep  to  his  own  house  in  Carthage  until  he  could 
hear  him.  Strange  luck  that  he  should  have  had  a 
few  final  days  in  his  own  beautiful  gardens !  In- 
fluential friends,  Christian  and  pagan,  urged  him  to 
flee.  But  he  felt  no  inward  promptings,  and  abode 
his  time.  Soon  Galerius  sent  messengers  to  bring 
him  to  Utica,  but  Cyprian  got  wind  of  it,  and  pre- 
ferring to  die  in  Carthage,  absented  himself  till  the 
proconsul  was  well  enough  to  come  to  Carthage 
itself.  From  this  retreat  Cyprian  wrote  his  last  let- 
ter of  that  marvelous  correspondence  to  which  we 
are  so  greatly  indebted  for  the  knowledge  of  the 
Church  history  and  polity  of  the  third  century.  This 
short  letter  is  so  interesting  as  the  last  word  of  one 
of  the  greatest  and  bravest  of  the  Church's  wit- 
nesses that  the  reader  ought  to  have  it  before  him 
in  full : 

"Cyprian  to  the  presbyters  and  deacons  and  all 
the  people,  greeting.  When  it  had  been  told  us, 
dearest  brethren,  that  the  military  clerks  had  been 
sent  to  bring  me  to  Utica,  and  I  had  been  persuaded 
by  the  counsel  of  those  dearest  to  me  to  withdraw 


The:  Crowning.  199 

for  a  time  from  my  gardens,  and  as  a  just  reason 
was  offered,  I  consented.  For  the  reason  that  in 
this  city  in  which  he  presides  over  the  Church  of 
the  Lord  is  the  place  where  the  bishop  ought  to 
confess  his  Lord  and  to  glorify  his  whole  commons 
(the  people)  by  the  confession  of  their  own  prelate 
in  their  presence.  But  the  honor  of  our  Church, 
glorious  as  it  is,  will  be  mutilated  if  I,  a  bishop 
placed  over  another  Church,  receiving  my  sentence 
or  my  confession  at  Utica,  should  go  there  as  a 
martyr  to  the  Lord,  when,  indeed,  for  my  sake  and 
yours,  I  pray  with  continual  supplication  and  en- 
treaty with  all  my  desires  that  I  may  confess  among 
you  and  suffer  there,  and  thence  depart  to  the  Lord 
as  I  ought.  Therefore  here  in  a  hidden  retreat  I 
await  the  arrival  of  the  proconsul  at  Carthage,  and 
hear  from  him  what  the  emperors  have  commanded 
concerning  Christian  laymen  and  bishops,  and  may 
say  what  the  Lord  may  wish  to  be  said  at  that  hour. 
"But  do  you,  dearest  brethren,  according  to  the 
discipline  which  you  have  read  from  me  out  of  the 
Lord's  commands,  and  according  to  what  you  have 
so  often  learnt  from  my  discourses,  keep  peace  and 
tranquillity,  nor  let  any  of  you  stir  up  any  tumult 
for  the  brethren,  or  voluntarily  offer  himself  to 
the  Gentiles.    For  when  arrested  he  ought  to  speak, 


200  Cyprian  :  The  Churchman. 

inasmuch  as  the  Lord  abiding  in  us  speaks  in  that 
hour,  who  willed  that  we  should  rather  confess  than 
profess.  But  for  the  rest,  what  it  is  fitting  that  we 
should  observe  before  the  proconsul  passes  sen- 
tence on  me  for  the  confession  of  the  name  of  God, 
we  will  with  the  instruction  of  the  Lord  arrange  in 
common.  May  our  Lord  make  you,  dearest  breth- 
ren, to  remain  safe  in  His  Church,  and  condescend 
to  keep  you.    So  be  it  through  His  mercy."11 

It  was  a  common  opinion  in  times  of  persecution 
that  in  the  last  supreme  act  of  witnessing  the  Holy 
Spirit  breathed  a  special  message  through  the  one 
about  to  suffer,12  and  it  was  that  opinion  which 
Cyprian  voices  in  this  letter.  He  naturally  wanted 
to  utter  any  word  of  that  kind  among  his  own  flock. 
Eut  at  the  last,  as  we  shall  see,  the  Spirit  gave  no 
sign,  and  Cyprian  was  silent.  The  martyrdom  itself 
was  sufficient. 

Soon  the  proconsul  arrived  in  Carthage,  and 
Cyprian  returned  to  his  gardens.  On  September 
13,  258,  a  chariot  drove  through  them  to  the  door 
of  Cyprian's  villa.  In  it  were  two  principes  or  cen- 
turions,—one  an  officer  of  the  legion  and  the  pro- 
consul's strator  or  equerry,  the  other  a  prison  guard 
or  officer.    They  find  Cyprian  at  once,  lift  him  into 


11  Ep.  81  (82).  12  For  instances  see  Benson,  496. 


The  Crowning.  201 

the  chariot,  and  drove  away.  His  wish  was  ful- 
filled, he  was  to  die  among  his  people.  Pontius,  his 
deacon-biographer,  tells  us  how  his  "serious  joyous- 
ness"  of  expression  was  transfigured  by  the  manful 
heart  to  lofty  eagerness  and  almost  mirthfulness.13 
"For  whatsoever  is  begotten  of  God  overcometh 
the  world;  and  this  is  the  victory  that  hath  over- 
come the  world, — our  faith."14  The  proconsul  was 
not  well  enough  to  proceed  with  the  case.  He  there- 
fore postponed  the  hearing  till  the  morrow,  and 
committed  Cyprian  to  the  safe-keeping  of  one  of  the 
officers,  who  kept  him  in  his  own  house. 

The  next  day  he  was  taken  before  the  proconsul. 
He  was  arraigned  for  sacrilege,  which  included 
every  offense  against  religion,  as  the  Romans  un- 
derstood it,  and  Cyprian  would  be  the  last  man  to 
deny  that  he  was  guilty  of  it.  The  proceedings 
were  by  questions  and  answers  as  before,  but  this 
time  even  more  brief. 

The  Proconsul  Galerius  Maximus.  You  are 
Thascius  Cyprianus. 

Cyprian.    I  am. 

Galerius.  You  have  lent  yourself  to  be  a  pope  to 
persons  of  sacrilegious  views. 

Cyprian.    I  have. 

13  Vita  Cypriani,  6,  15.  14  1  John  v,  4. 


202  Cyprian  :  The  Churchman. 

Galcrius.  The  most  hallowed  emperors  have 
ordered  you  to  perform  the  rite. 

Cyprian.    I  do  not  offer. 

Galcrius.     Do  consider  yourself. 

Cyprian.  Do  what  you  are  charged  to  do.  In  a 
matter  so  straightforward  there  is  nothing  to  con- 
sider. 

How  brief,  yet  how  fateful!  The  proconsul 
conferred  with  the  council,  as  that  was  required  in 
serious  sentences,  though  he  was  not  necessarily 
bound  by  their  opinions.    Then  he  said : 

Galerius.  Your  life  has  long  been  led  in  a  sacri- 
legious mode  of  thought ;  you  have  associated  your- 
self with  a  large  number  of  persons  in  criminal  com- 
plicity; you  have  constituted  yourself  an  antagonist 
to  the  gods  of  Rome  and  their  sacred  observances. 
Nor  have  our  pious  and  most  hallowed  princes, 
Valerian  and  Gallienus  the  Augusti,  and  Valerian 
the  most  noble  Caesar,  been  able  to  recall  you  to  the 
obedience  of  their  own  ceremonial.  And,  therefore, 
whereas,  you  have  been  clearly  detected  as  the  insti- 
gator and  standard-bearer  in  very  bad  offenses,  you 
shall  in  your  own  person  be  a  lesson  to  those  whom 
you  have  by  guilt  of  your  own  associated  with  you. 
Discipline  shall  be  ratified  with  your  blood.  [He 
then  took  the  prepared  tablet  and  read :]    Our  pleas- 


The  Crowning.  203 

ure  is  that  Thascius  Cyprianus  be  executed  with  the 
sword. 

Cyprian.    Thanks  be  to  God.15 

The  Christian  multitude  standing  around  sent 
up  the  cry:  "And  let  us  be  beheaded,  too,  along 
with  him."  Surrounded  by  a  guard  from  the  Third 
Legion,  Cyprian  was  led  out  to  an  open  level  space 
in  the  city,  followed  by  thousands  of  his  fellow- 
citizens,  Christian  and  pagan.  Many  of  the  latter 
were  in  sympathy  with  him,  partly  on  account  of  his 
shining  life,  partly  on  account  of  the  masterly  and 
loving  way  in  which  he  showed  himself  the  city's 
friend  in  the  time  of  her  awful  visitation.  In  the 
midst  of  his  deacons  and  presbyters  Cyprian  stood. 
He  took  off  his  white  woolen  cape,  and  then  knelt 
on  the  ground  in  prayer.  After  this  would  have 
been  the  time  for  that  word  of  the  Lord,  if  any 
were  to  be  given  him.  But  he  did  not  speak.  He 
who  had  visions  and  occasional  revelations  from  the 
Lord,  as  he  believed  (and  the  age  of  the  prophets 
was  still  in  the  memory  of  the  Church,  and  his  great 
teacher,  the  Master,  Tertullian,  was  himself  a  Mon- 
tanist),  was  denied  anything  like  that  now.  There 
was  nothing  that  he  could  distinguish  from  his  own 
thoughts.    So  he  was  silent.    "He  might  disappoint 


16  Acta  Proc.  3,  4.     See  Benson,  501  ff. 


204  Cyprian:  The  Churchman. 

the  people,  but  he  would  not  delude  them  for  their 
own  good." 

It  was  the  headman's  office  to  execute  the  sen- 
tence,— the  carnifex,  or  speculator,  not  the  cen- 
turion who  had  command  of  the  party.  Unnerved 
by  the  large  sum  given  him  by  Cyprian,  or  touched 
by  sympathy,  or  for  some  other  reason,  the  heads- 
man could  scarcely  grasp  the  hilt  of  his  great  sword. 
Noticing  him  tremble,  the  centurion  immediately 
stepped  forward,  and  to  the  kneeling  and  blind- 
folded bishop  did  the  work  with  one  powerful 
stroke. 

"And  so  suffered  the  blessed  Cyprian."16 

The  age  of  suffering  unto  death  for  conscience' 
sake,  is,  we  trust,  gone  forever.  But  the  last  words 
cf  his  last  book  were:  "If  persecution  finds  God's 
soldier  in  this  mind,  .  .  .  and  he  is  called  away 
without  suffering  martyrdom,  the  faith  which  was 
ready  to  welcome  it  will  not  lose  its  reward.  The 
wages  of  God  are  paid  in  good  interest  without  any 
deduction  for  lack  of  opportunity.  The  crown  is 
given  for  field  service  in  time  of  persecution;  in 
time  of  peace  it  is  given  to  him  who  is  certain  of 
his  will."17 

What  is  the  abiding  significance   of   Cyprian? 


16  Acta  Proc.  5.  17  Ad  Fortunatum,  at  end. 


Thk  Crowning.  205 

• 

In  history  he  is  known  as  the  great  Churchman. 
Full  credit  is  given  in  this  book  to  the  wonderful 
active  persistence,  and  even  self-sacrifice,  with  which 
he  defended  and  illustrated  his  High  Churchly  views. 
It  is  shown  how  they  underlay  all  his  thinking  and 
work,  and  how  his  consistency  and  earnestness  here 
even  led  him  to  his  great  breach  with  his  brother 
of  Rome,  a  breach  which  must  have  cost  him  heart- 
agony.  And  his  intellectual  and  literary  power  and 
fertility,  his  piety  and  single-hearted  devotion  to 
Christ,  and  the  almost  preternatural  insight  with 
which  he  saw  the  real  meaning  and  drift  of  the 
Catholic  Church  of  his  time,  which  found  its  truest 
incarnation  in  him,  and  the  energy  and  enthusiasm 
with  which  he  set  that  Church  forward,— all  this 
brought  it  about  that  the  essential  things  for  which 
Cyprian  stood  passed  into  the  very  blood  of  the 
ancient  Church.  In  every  Catholic  Church  of  Chris- 
tendom to-day,  Roman,  Greek,  Russian,  Armenian, 
and  High  Anglican, — he  still  lives  and  moves  and 
has  his  being.  Such  world-significance  is  surely 
justification  enough  for  treatment  in  a  series  like 
the  present. 

But  from  the  standpoint  of  Christianity  this  is 
not  the  chief  significance  of  Cyprian.  We  know  that 
his  view  of  the  Church,  all  his  so-called  Catholic 


206  Cyprian  :  The  Churchman. 

views,  were  narrow,  mechanical,  false,  unscriptural. 
We  know,  too,  that  if  he  had  never  lived  the  Cath- 
olic development  would  not  have  been  essentially 
different.  He  represented  his  age,  he  did  not  create 
it.  Old  Ignatius  said  in  germ  most  of  the  things 
he  said.  No,  the  eternal  lesson  of  Cyprian  is  not 
here.  It  is  here:  a  true  soldier  of  Jesus  Christ. 
According  to  his  light,  according  to  his  conscience, 
he  served  Him  from  his  conversion  to  his  martyrdom 
with  utter  fidelity  and  with  brave-hearted  and  broad- 
hearted  love.  On  this  account  he  speaks  to  us  to- 
day, to  every  layman,  and  especially  to  every  min- 
ister. O  brother  men!  across  the  fields  of  history 
do  we  hear  his  voice  urging  us  as  true  soldiers  to 
stand  in  the  evil  day,  and  having  done  all,  to  stand  ? 
"Gazing  down  on  us  amid  the  conflict  of  his  name," 
he  says,  "God  approves  those  who  are  willing,  aids 
the  fighters,  crowns  the  conquerors."18  And  let 
every  minister  hear  himself  described  in  the  vivid 
military  imagery  of  the  mine-martyrs  to  Cyprian: 
"As  a  sounding  trumpet  thou  hast  caused  the  sol- 
diers of  God  equipped  with  heavenly  armor  for  the 
shock  of  battle,  and  in  the  forefront  thou  hast  slain 
the  devil  with  the  sword  of  the  Spirit.    On  this  side 


18  Ep.  76,  4. 


The.  Crowning.  207 

and  on  that  thou  hast  marshaled  the  lines  of  the 
brethren  by  thy  words,  so  that  snares  might  be  laid 
in  all  directions  for  the  foe,  the  sinews  of  the  com- 
mon enemy  be  severed,  and  carcasses  trodden  under 
foot."19 


19  Ep.  77,  2. 


APPENDIX  I. 

The;  Interpolations  in  the  "De  Unitate 

The  famous  passage  in  chapter  4  of  the  "De 
Unitate  Ecclesiae"  is  quoted  above,  page  169,  the 
italicized  portions  being  those  usually  designated  as 
interpolated.  In  my  judgment  the  matter  is  not  of 
great  importance,  as  the  interpolations  are  par- 
alleled by  other  utterances  of  Cyprian,  whose  gen- 
uineness has  never  been  disputed;  and  as  they  do 
not  and  can  not  affect  one's  judgment  of  Cyprian's 
real  view  as  to  Roman  supremacy,  which  rests  on 
evidence  demonstrably  certain,  therefore  in  the 
exposition  of  that  view  above  I  have  made  no  cap- 
ital out  of  the  interpolations.  We  may  therefore 
in  a  quiet  spirit  estimate  the  evidence. 

There  are  no  manuscripts  of  Cyprian  extant 
which  are  earlier  than  the  sixth  or  seventh  century. 
The  two  oldest  are  S.  and  V., — the  Seguier  of  the 
library  of  Paris,  which  contains  the  most  genuine 
readings  and  the  oldest  forms  of  words,  and  the 
208 


Appendix  I.  209 

Verona,  given  to  Charles  Borromeo  by  the  canons 
of  Verona.  Both  are  of  the  sixth  or  seventh  cen- 
tury, it  is  not  certain  which.  Both  are  without  the 
interpolations. 

The  next  oldest  series  are  the  Benventanus,  or 
the  Neapolitanus  (date  not  assigned),  W  (Wiirz- 
burg)  of  the  eighth  or  ninth,  some  say  seventh, 
century,  R  (Reginensis),  and  the  G  (San  Gallen- 
sis)  of  the  ninth.  Not  one  of  these  has  the  ad- 
dition. 

Now  as  there  was  no  reason  in  the  ancient 
Church  to  leave  out  the  words,  if  they  were  genu- 
ine, the  evidence  of  Lower  Criticism  is  decidedly 
against  them.  Such  evidence  against  a  disputed 
Bible  text  would  be  decisive. 

On  the  same  side  are  the  following  facts.  A 
great  scholar,  Latini,  who  was  working  in  Rome 
about  1550,  said  he  had  seen  seven  Cyprian  manu- 
scripts in  the  Vatican  in  which  all  these  words  in 
question  were  wanting.  Baluze,  who  published  his 
edition  of  Cyprian  in  Paris  in  1726,  said  that  he  had 
examined  twenty-seven  manuscripts,  not  one  of 
which  had  the  interpolations.  Bishop  Fell,  in  his 
Oxford  edition  of  1682,  used  four  English  codices, 
not  one  of  which  had  the  italicized  words.  Other 
English  texts  have  the  post-resurrection  charge  to 
14 


210  Cyprian:  The  Churchman. 

Peter,  but  not  the  interpolated  words.  These  are  of 
the  tenth  century  or  later.  Baluze  says  that  the 
German  MSS.  of  the  eleventh  century  did  not  con- 
tain the  words,  nor  are  they  found  in  any  of  the 
editions  of  Cyprian  which  appeared  before  that  of 
Manutius  in  1563,  and  which  represent  many  of  the 
MSS.  now  lost.  See  the  exhaustive  discussion  of 
Benson,  200  ff*.  On  the  principles  of  text  criticism 
the  disputed  words  are  doubtful.  Their  absence 
from  nearly  all  of  the  oldest  manuscripts  is  a 
weighty  fact. 

Harnack  says  that  Pelagius  I,  in  a  letter  of  558- 
60,  first  edited  by  Lowenfeld  (Epp.  Pontiff.  Rom. 
inedita  1885,  15.),  cites  the  "De  Unitate"  4  with- 
out knowing  the  interpolated  sentences ;  while  Mer- 
cati  shows  that  the  sentences  are  presupposed  in  a 
letter  of  Pelagius  II  about  585.  They  are  found  in 
O.  (Troyes  codex  of  the  eighth  or  ninth  century), 
in  M.  (Monacensis  or  the  Munich  codex  of  the 
ninth),  and  in  a  Bodleian  of  the  tenth  or  eleventh, 
all  of  which  go  back  to  one  original,  a  lost  manu- 
script. From  this  Harnack  concluded  in  1899  that 
the  interpolation  is  not  much  later  than  the  middle 
of  the  sixth  century,  and  is  of  Roman  origin.  See 
Theol.  Litcraturzeitung,  1899,  No.  18,  517. 

The  disputed  words  appeared  first  in  print  in  the 


Appendix  I.  211 

edition  of  Paulus  Manutius,  Rome,  1563.  Latino 
Latini  did  the  editing  in  a  conscientious  and  ac- 
curate manner.  When  the  edition  was  going 
through  the  press  certain  changes  and  additions 
were  made.  "Whether,"  says  Latini,  "it  was  at  the 
mere  pleasure  of  certain  persons  or  of  set  design, 
he  knew  not,  some  passages  were  retained  contrary 
to  the  evidence  of  the  manuscripts,  and  even  some 
additions  made."  This  so  disgusted  Latini  that  he 
withdrew  both  his  name  and  his  anotations  from  the 
edition,  nor  would  the  Vatican  authorities  allow  Bp. 
8  (2) — the  Roman  clergy  to  Cyprian — to  appear  in 
this  edition,  nor  the  famous  letter  of  Firmilian  (75 
[74] ).  In  a  copy  of  Manutius's  edition  in  the  Uni- 
versity Library  in  Gottingen  there  are  copies  of 
manuscript  notes  by  Latini.  Against  this  passage 
in  Un.  4  is  the  note :  "These  words  were  added  out 
of  a  single  manuscript  belonging  to  Virosius  [cler- 
ical error  for  Vianesius],  of  Bologna,  now  in  the 
Vatican,  by  P.  Gabriel,  the  Poenitentiary,  with  the 
consent  of  the  master  of  the  sacred  palace."  From 
this  interesting  history  it  is  fortunate  that  all  the 
editions  of  Cyprian  before  1563  (except  the  old 
Black  Letter  of  1471)  were  published  outside  of 
Rome, — and  there  had  been  about  seventeen  of 
them. 


212  Cyprian  :  The  Churchman. 

In  the  Revue  Benedictine,  Abbaye  de  Maredsous, 
Belgium,  Nos.  3  and  4,  1902,  No.  I,  1903,  Dom  John 
Chapman  has  given  a  defense  of  the  genuineness 
of  the  disputed  text.  There  is  a  brief  reply  to  this 
by  E.  W.  Watson,  Professor  of  Ecclesiastical  His- 
tory in  King's  College,  London,  in  the  Journal  of 
Theological  Studies,  London,  April,  1904,  432  if., 
with  a  defense  by  Chapman  in  the  next  number  of 
the  same  Journal,  634  ff.  The  reasons  given  by  the 
learned  Benedictine  are  as  follows : 

( 1 )  The  thought  in  the  alleged  interpolations  is 
thoroughly  Cyprianic.  There  was  no  necessity  for 
a  forgery. 

(2)  The  style  is  also  unmistakably  Cyprianic. 
Watson  agrees  with  these  two  points.  "There  is 
nothing  inconsistent  either  in  style  or  in  thought 
in  the  so-called  interpolations  with  the  Cyprianic 
authorship," — Watson,  433. 

(3)  No  one  living  at  that  time  could  have  been 
the  author  but  Cyprian.  (But  look  at  the  swarm  of 
writings  of  that  age  and  later  which  went  under 
Cyprian's  name,  and  of  so  close  imitation  that  they 
deceived  the  very  elect.  Even  now  Cyprian  experts 
are  at  variance  as  to  some  of  these  writings.) 

(4)  Not  only  Bede,  but  fathers  of  the  fifth  and 
even  of  the  fourth  century  knew  the  text  as  inter- 


Appendix  I.  213 

polated,  and  from  the  circumstances  of  the  origins 
of  the  interpolations,  they  must  belong  to  the  third 
century.  If  they  went  back  so  far  they  must  have 
had  a  Cyprianic  origin.  But  besides  chapter  19 
was  changed  in  the  copy  intended  for  Rome.  If 
chapter  19,  why  not  chapter  4? 

(5)  The  mystery  of  the  texts  is  solved  in  this 
way.  Cyprian  wrote  first  a  copy  of  the  De  Unitate 
for  the  congregation  at  Carthage  in  view  of  the 
threatened  schism  of  Felicissimus.  This  copy  was 
the  original,  and  did  not  have  the  alleged  interpola- 
tions. Soon  after  he  wrote  another  copy  to  meet 
conditions  in  Rome,  the  schism  of  the  confessors, 
Novatians,  etc.  In  this  copy  he  enlarged  his  first 
draft,  calling  attention  to  the  Petrine  chair,  the 
necessity  of  union  with  it,  etc.  Now  the  Carthagin- 
ian copy  was  the  basis  of  all  the  later  copies.  When 
the  collections  of  Cyprian's  writings  were  made  it 
was  always  the  Carthaginian  De  Unitate  which  hap- 
pened to  be  included,  not  the  enlarged  Roman.  But 
some  manuscripts  did  preserve  the  Roman  reading, 
which  explains  the  existence  of  the  enlarged  chap- 
ter 4  in  a  manuscript  nearly  as  old  as  the  oldest. 
The  Carthaginian  shorter  copy  was  that,  however, 
which  happened  to  be  at  the  back  of  nearly  all  the 
existing  manuscripts. 


214  Cyprian  :  Ths  Churchman. 

This  thesis  of  Chapman's  has  won  the  weighty 
approval  of  Harnack  and  of  the  enthusiastic  young 
Cyprian  scholar,  von  Soden.  The  former  says  that 
although  Chapman's  view  is  not  free  from  objec- 
tion, it  is  admirably  established,  and,  in  his  opinion, 
is  correct.  He  says  that  the  interpolations  must 
belong  to  the  fourth  century,  perhaps  to  the  third, 
and  that,  moreover,  Cyprian  says  here  no  more  than 
he  says  elsewhere.  The  thought  belongs  to  the 
third  century.  It  is  no  mere  Roman  falsification. 
See  Theol.  Literaturzeitiing,  1903,  Nr.  9,  262-3. 
Von  Soden  gives  his  indorsement  to  Chapman  in 
his  "Die  Cyprianische  Briefsammlung,"  Leipz.  1904, 
p.  21,  note,  p.  202. 

It  seems  to  me,  however,  that  Watson  shows 
here  better  critical  sense.  This  theory  of  two 
Cyprianic  editions  of  the  "De  Unitate,"  one  for 
Carthage  and  another  enlarged  for  Rome,  and  that 
the  lean  kine  of  the  former  ate  up  the  fat  kine  of 
the  latter,  that  the  African  copy  in  a  country  that 
was  later  decimated  by  Vandal  and  Mohammedan, 
became  the  predominant  type,  so  that  manuscripts 
of  Roman  reading  became  well-nigh  lost, — this 
theory,  it  must  be  confessed,  is  a  large  draft  on 
credulity.  Would  not  Rome  have  immense  inter- 
est in  circulating  her  edition  ?    Would  it  not  in  time 


Appendix  I.  215 

entirely  supplant  the  scanty  and  far-away  Cartha- 
ginian product,  especially  after  the  disappearance  of 
the  Carthaginian  Church?  Would  not  this  bring 
it  about  that  the  shorter  recension,  if  it  survived  at 
all,  would  have  been  considered  doubtful,  and  even 
spurious  ? 

On  the  supposition  of  later  interpolations  these 
huge  improbabilities  are  avoided.  The  fact  seems 
to  be  that  some  one  in  the  papal  interest,  well  versed 
in  Cyprian,  added  to  the  "De  Unitate"  words  and 
sentences  taken  from  other  places  in  his  writings 
or  having  his  stamp,  in  order  to  make  him  speak 
there  much  more  decidedly  for  Peter's  chair. 


APPENDIX  II. 

Chronological  Order  of  the  Epistles. 

This  must  be  made  out  by  the  most  careful  and 
patient  study  of  the  epistles  themselves,  with  all 
the  light  that  can  be  obtained  from  every  other 
source.  The  old  Oxford  scholars,  Pearson,  Fell, 
and  Dodwell,  tried  their  hand  at  this,  and  their  re- 
sults appeared  in  the  Cyprianic  publications  of  1682 
and  1684  (See  App.  III).  Their  arrangement  was 
accepted  in  the  critical  edition  of  Hartel,  and  is 
that  used  in  all  scientific  work  since.  Migne  fol- 
lows the  order  of  Baluzius,  and  gives  besides  under 
each  epistle  the  numbers  of  Erasmus,  Pamelius 
(1574,  last  ed.  1664),  Rigaltius  (Paris,  1648),  Ox- 
ford, Leipzig,  and  Paris  (1836).  His  order  is  that 
unfortunately  accepted  in  the  Ante-Nicene  Chris- 
tion  Library  (Ante-Nicene  Fathers).  I  suggest  to 
each  owner  of  the  latter,  who  is  especially  inter- 
ested in  Cyprian,  to  make  out  his  own  key  of  the 
Oxford-Migne  arrangement  by  noticing  the  Oxford 
216 


Appendix  II.  217 

number  given  in  a  note  under  each  epistle  in  the 
Ante-Nicene  edition.  Otto  Ritschl  subjected  this 
question  to  a  restudy  in  the  most  thorough  fashion, 
as  appears  in  his  Latin  Licentiate  thesis,  "De  Epis- 
tolis  Cyprianicis,"  Hallis  Saxonum,  1885.  See  also 
his  Anhang,  "Die  Chronologie  der  Cyprianischen 
Briefe,"  in  his  "Cyprian  und  die  Verfassung  der 
Kirche,"  pp.  238-49.  He  there  prefers  the  follow- 
ing order  (using  Oxford-Hartel  numbering)  :  63, 
1,  7,  5>  6>  8>  9,  x3,  l4,  12,  11,  10,  21,  22,  15,  16, 
17,  18,  19,  20,  24,  25,  23,  26,  27,  28,  29,  30,  31,  32, 

33,  34,  35,  36,  37,  3§,  39,  40,  41,  42,  43,  45,  44,  48, 
46,  47,  50,  49,  53,  51,  52,  54,  55,  64,  59,  65,  56,  57, 
58,  60,  62,  61,  66,  2,  4,  3,  68,  69,  70,  71,  73,  67, 
72,  74,  75,  76,  77,  78,  79,  80,  81.  Fechtrup's  order 
for  5-19  is  5-7,  13,  14,  12,  II,  10,  15-19.  Of  the 
epistles  in  this  order  he  places  all  to  12  before  A.  D. 
250,  nth  at  the  beginning  of  a  new  persecution, 
the  rest  in  July-August,  250. 

As  to  subject  groups,  39  epistles  (5-43  Oxford- 
Kartel  numbering)  belong  to  the  first  period  of 
Cyprian's  episcopate,  during  his  absence  from 
Carthage  in  the  Decian  persecution;  23  (44-61,  64- 
8)  are  concerned  with  questions  which  arose  out  of 
the  persecution  after  its  close  and  after  his  return ; 
7  (69-75)  on  rebaptism ;  the  last  6  (76-81)  belong  to 


218  Cyprian:  The  Churchman. 

Valerian's  persecution  and  the  closing  year  of 
Cyprian's  life;  the  six  remaining  (1-4,  62,  63)  are 
outside  of  the  main  development  of  the  history.  See 
"Cyprian's  Correspondence"  in  Church  Quarterly 
Review,  July,  1892,  381  ft  (vol.  34). 


APPENDIX  III. 

Select  Literature. 

The  first  edition  of  Cyprian's  works  appeared  in 
Rome,  1471,  and  an  independent  edition  at  Venice 
the  same  year.  An  early  edition  was  without  year 
or  name  of  printer,  the  editio  innominata.  The  six- 
teenth century  was  prolific,  a  sign  of  the  awakened 
interest  in  patristic  study  due  to  the  revival  of  learn- 
ing and  the  Reformation.  There  were  no  less  than 
twenty-one  editions  and  reprints,  the  first  being  the 
Paris  edition  by  Rembott,  15 12,  and  the  Basel  edi- 
tion by  Erasmus,  1520,  which  last  was  celebrated 
as  containing  the  "De  Duplici  Martyris  ad  For- 
tunatum,"  which  was  written  by  Erasmus  himself 
and  passed  off  as  Cyprian's.  The  seventeenth  cen- 
tury saw  many  editions,  notably  these,  Rigaltius, 
Paris,  1648,  and  Fell  and  Pearson,  Oxford,  1682. 
The  most  important  of  the  later  are:  Baluzius 
(with  the  Mauriner  Maranus  after  Baluzius's 
death)  Paris,  1726,  Goldhorn,  Leipzig,  2  vols., 
1838-9,  Migne,  Paris,  1844,  anf^  tne  careful  and 
219 


220  Cyprian  :  The  Churchman. 

critical  edition  of  Hartel,  Vienna,  3  vols.,  1868-71, 
which  is  that  used  and  referred  to  in  all  books  and 
articles  on  Cyprian  published  since  1871. 

Cyprian's  friend  and  deacon,  Pontius,  wrote  his 
'life  (De  Vita  Cypriani)  published  in  all  editions 
and  translations  of  his  works.  The  genuine  Acta 
Proconsularia  Martyrii  Cypriani  appears  in  Ruinart, 
"Acta  Martyrum,"  Amsterdam,  171 3,  and  in  von 
Gebhardt's  "Acta  Martyrum  selecta,"  Berlin,  1902, 
124-8.  Modern  lives,  often  with  dissertations  on 
various  Cyprianic  questions,  are  by  Pearson,  "An- 
nates Cyprianici,"  Oxford,  1682,  Maranus,  Vita 
Cypriani,  in  Baluzius,  Paris,  1726;  H.  Dodwell, 
"Dissertationes  Cypriani  cse,"  Oxford,  1684;  in  the 
great  collection  of  Tillemant,  "Memoires"  IV,  j6  ff, 
Ceilier,  III,  and  Lumper  XI ;  separate  lives  by  Rett- 
berg,  Gottingen,  1 831 ;  Poole,  Oxford,  1840  (super- 
seded by  Benson) ;  Reitmeier,  Augsb.,  1848 ;  Blam- 
bignon,  Paris,  1861 ;  Peters  (Prof,  in  R.  C.  Episco- 
pal seminary  at  Luxemburg),  Regensburg,  1877 
(able,  but  written  from  strictly  Roman  point  of 
view)  ;  Fechtrup,  Munster,  1878  (the  best  German 
life  written  as  a  separate  work,  but  lacking  in  some 
points ;  see  Harnack  in  Theol.  Literaturzcitung, 
1879,  nr.  6,  125-7)  ;  Benson,  London  and  New 
York,  1897.    Archbishop  Benson  devoted  thirty  or 


Appendix  III.  221 

forty  years  to  the  study  of  the  life  and  times  of 
Cyprian,  and  his  book  is  one  of  the  greatest  mono- 
graphs in  Church  history  ever  written.  He  has 
poured  into  notes  the  abundant  fruits  of  amazing 
and  minute  learning.  His  book  is  written  con 
amove,  from  the  High  Church  point  of  view,  with 
glowing  admiration  for  his  hero,  but  not  without 
criticism  here  and  there.  It  ranks  with  Lightfoot's 
Clement  of  Rome  and  Ignatius  among  the  very 
greatest  English  patristic  studies  of  the  nineteenth 
century.  The  New  York  edition  (from  same 
plates)  is  out  of  print.  Benson's  "Catholic"  stand- 
point occasioned  the  admirable  brief  Sir  William 
MtuVs  "Cyprian,  His  Life  and  Teachings,"  Edinb : 
T.  and  T.  Clark,  1898,  40  pp.  On  Benson  see  the 
London  Quarterly  Review,  January  1898,  253-70, — 
an  excellent  article ;  Church  Quarterly  Review,  Lon- 
don, October,  1897,  25"53  >  G.  Kruger  in  Theol.  Lit.- 
Zcit.,  1899,  nr.  14,  413-15;  F.  Johnson  in  Amer. 
Journ.  of  Theol,  April,  1898,  422-6;  F.  H.  Chase  in 
Critical  Rev.,  July,  1897,  341-52;  H.  Liidemann  in 
Theol.  Jahresbericht,  1897,  Berlin,  1898,  195-6.  Long 
and  excellent  treatments  of  Cyprian  are  also  found  in 
the  "Church  Histories"  of  Schrock,  Vol  4;  Neander, 
Boston  ed.,  vol.  I ;  Bohringer,  "Die  Kirche  Christi 
und  ihre  Zeugen,    oder  die  Kirchengeschichte  in 


222  Cyprian:  The;  Churchman. 

Biographien,"  vol.  4,  2.  Aufl.  1874,  pp.  813-1039, 
which  is  often  found  printed  separately ;  and  Farrar, 
"Lives  of  the  Fathers,"  Lond.,  1889,  vol.  II,  pp. 
185-260. 

There  are  many  monographs  and  special  articles, 
for  which  see  the  bibliography  prefixed  to  Leim- 
bach's  article  in  the  Hauck-Herzog  Realencyklopd- 
die,  3.  Aufl.  1898,  367  ft*.,  Bardenhewer,  Patrologie, 
2.  Aufl.  1901,  167-175;  and  (for  late  lit.)  the  ad- 
mirable work  of  Prof.  Ehrhard  in  the  Strassbarger 
Theol.  Studien,  viz.,  "Die  Altchristliche  Literatur 
und  ihre  Erforschung  von  1884-1900/'  1.  Abt. 
Freib.  in  B.  1900,  455-81.  It  will  be  sufficient  to 
mention  here:  Otto  Ritschl  (Son  of  Albrecht), 
"Cyprian  von  Carthago  und  die  Verfassung  der 
Kirche,"  Gottingen,  1885,  an  able  and  independent 
study,  especially  valuable  in  the  second  part,  but 
specially  original  in  the  first  part,  in  which  are  new 
combinations  and  results,  some  of  which,  I  think, 
are  overdrawn,  as  e.  g.,  his  main  achievement,  that 
Cyprian's  view  of  the  Church  is  the  result  of  the 
pressure  of  circumstances,  the  response  (so  to 
speak)  to  the  historical  situation  in  which  he  found 
himself,  an  evolution  drawn  out  by  the  opposition 
of  the  presbyters,  confessors,  and  the  Novatian 
movement,  something  invented  to  meet  contingen- 


Appendix  III.  223 

cies.  See  the  long  and,  on  the  whole,  very  favorable 
review  by  Zoepffel,  the  Theol.  Lit.-Zeit,  1885,  nr. 
13,  229-304,  nr.  14,  326-30;  also  Th.  Jahresb.  5 
(1885),  149.  Carl  Goetz,  "Die  Busslehre  Cyprian," 
Konigsb.  in  Pr.,  1895, — an  earnest  scientific  piece 
of  work,  corrected,  however,  in  one  main  conclusion 
by  K.  Miiller  in  "Zeitschrift  f.  Kirchengeschichte," 
16:  187  ff,K.  G.  Goetz,  "Das  Christentum  Cyprians," 
Giessen,  1896,  a  careful  and  impartial  work,  but 
partially  spoiled  by  a  new  and  arbitrary  terminology 
and  method  of  division,  on  which  see  Liidemann  in 
Th.  Jahresb.  1896,  163-4.  K.  H.  Wirth,  "Der  Ver- 
dienst-Begriff  in  der  Christlichen  Kirche,  II  Der 
Verdienst-Begriff  bei  Cyprian,"  Leipzig,  1901,  an 
excellent  and  exhaustive  study.  Hans  Freiherr  von 
Soden,  "Die  Cyprianische  Briefsammlung,"  Leipz., 
1904.  Von  Soden  shows  the  early  wide  diffusion 
and  use  of  Cyprian's  letters.  He  says  that  numerous 
copies  were  circulated  even  in  his  own  lifetime ;  that 
he  himself  prepared  compendia  of  his  letters  (Bp. 
27  [22]  :  4)  ;  and  that  before  Cyprian  died  his  let- 
ters had  a  place  in  the  devotional  literature  of  the 
Church.  The  writings  of  Cyprian  which  are  known 
to  us,  but  which  have  perished,  were  lost  at  a  very 
early  date.  Von  Soden  thinks  that  the  oldest  col- 
lection of  letters  was  intended  for  confessors  and 


224  Cyprian  :  The;  Churchman. 

martyrs,  and  the  next  collection  for  the  strife  with 
the  heretics.  "Bishop  Lucifer,  of  Calaris,  in  his 
treatise,  made  use  of  nothing  but  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures and  the  writings  of  Cyprian."  See  Tasker  in 
Expository  Times,  June,  1904,  410. 

Three  English  translations  of  Cyprian's  com- 
plete works  exist:  (1)  by  Nathan  Marshall,  4to, 
Lond,  1717;  (2)  by  Chas.  Thornton  and  H.  Carey, 
in  Oxford  Library  of  Fathers,  2  vols.,  Oxf.  1839, 
1844;  and  (3)  by  Ernest  Wallis  in  Ante-Nicene 
Fathers,  Edinb.,  1868-9,  N.  Y.,  1886. 


INDEX 


Page 

Absolution 152-5 

Actor,  Case  of 50 

Alexandria,  Treatment   of 

lapsed  at 89,  100-1 

Asceticism  ...  76,  78,  144,  166-2 
Atonement 155 

Baptism — 
Regeneration  in. . .  21,142,149 

By  Heretics 176-88 

Post-baptismal  Sins 76-7 

Sick-bed  Baptism,    (note)  197 
Basilides  of  Leon,  Case  of. .   172 

Berber  Raids 122 

Bible,  Ancient  attitude  to  . .  36 
Bibliography,  Cyprianic  219-24 
Bishop — 
Office    of    ace.    to    Cyp- 
rian   4i-3>  in 

Privileges  of 43, 165 

How  elected 44 

Degeneration  of 55-6 

His  new  part  in  Discip- 
line   80-3 

See  also  whole  ch.  8. 
See  Church. 

Callisttjs,  his  new  decree 

as  to  penitents 81, 100 

Captives,  redeeming 123 

Carthage 1-17 

Certificates — 

Sacrificial 69-71 

Martyrs' ......  78-80,  856%  99 

Christ,  Doctrine  of 37 

Church,  Doctrine  of.  118-20,  148 

153-4 
Clergy- 
Catholic  theory  of , 39 

Ace.  to  Cyprian 41-3 

As  traders  and  laborers. 48-9 
Orders     invalidated 

by  grave  sin 173 


Page 
Cyprian — 

His  training 18 

Conversion 20-5 

Opinion  on  the  gods 26 

On  paganism 30-4 

His  book  against  the  Jews  36 

His  view  of  Christ 37 

Made  Bishop 38 

On  Church  and  Ministry  39-44 

Pope 46 

Work  for  Discipline...  48-57 

Flees  persecution 74 

Dealing  with  the  lapsed  84  ff 

Returns 96 

Attitude  to  Novatian. . .  110-5 
Incites  to  charity  in  giv- 
ing to  captives 124-6 

To  care  for  sick 128 

On  merit  of  good  deeds . . .   130 
Writes  "To  Demetrian."  133 

"  On  Mortality  " 136 

"  On  the  Lord's  Prayer  "  140  ff 

As  a  Catholic 147  ff 

Was   he  a   Roman  Cath- 
olic    163  ff 

His  quarrel  with  Stephen, 

of  Rome 176-8 

His  first  trial 190 

Banished    192 

Summoned  back 198 

Last  letter 198-200 

His  second  trial 201 

His  execution 202-4 

Abiding  significance  ...205-7 

Dead,  Prayers  and  offerings 

for 50,  159,  164 

Demons,  Casting  out 26-8 


Episcopate,  Carthaginian 
modeled  on  civil  or- 
ganization   15 


15 


225 


226 


Index. 


Page 
Epistles,  Cyprian's,  chrono- 
logical order 216 

Eucharist,  See  Supper, 
Lord's. 

Felicissimus,  Schism 

of 92-6,  98 

Gods,  Origin  of  heathen  26, 28-9 
Jews,  Cyprian  on 37 

Lawyers— 

Ancient 18 

Corrupt 33 

Laity- 
Place  of 38 

Active   in    electing   Bish 

op 44-6,  173 

Lapsed — 

The  (apostates  to  heathen- 
ism) question  of. .  75  ff,84  ff 
Final  disposition  of  their 
case 96,  116 

Marcian  of  Arles,  Case 

of 174 

Merit — 

Beginning  of 78 

Cyprian  on 130,  155-8 

Treasury  of 159 

Military  element  in  Cartha- 
ginian language 13 

Mines,  Labor  in,  as  punish- 
ment  64,  193 

Monasticism.  See  Asceticism. 

Novatian  and  his  move- 
ment     102  ff 

Novatus 112-5 

PAEDERASTY 32 

Paganism — 

Moral  condition  of 22-3 

Treatment  of  sicic  . .    . .   127-8 
Cruelty  of 134 

Persecution  of  Christians — 

Reasons  for  58-63 

Decian 63  ff 

Tortures 135 

Peter,  Primacy  of 148 

Plague  of  252  ff. 126-30 


Page 
Pope — 
Title,  when  and  for  whom 

first  used 46 

Of    Rome,     his    head- 
ship     165-75 

See  Stephen. 
Prayer — 

Posture  in 145 

Rules  for 146 

Lord's,  Cyprian  on 140  ff 

Purgatory.  See  Dead. 

Saints,  Intercession  of . . . .  160 

Shows,  Gladiatorial 31 

Sins,   Artificial   Cath.    dis- 
tinction in 76  ff 

Stephen,  Bishop  of  Rome — 
His  relation  to  two  Span- 
ish bishops 172 

Prompted   to  duty  by 

Cyprian 174 

Opposed  by   Cyprian  on 
question    of    Doctrine 

and  Discipline 176-88 

Suffering,  Why  permitted  133-8 
Supper,  Lord's,  referred  to 

in  Lord's  Prayer 144 

Cyprian's  Views  of 150-2, 

158-9. 

Tertullian— 

As  writer  8,  1 1 

His  significance I3_I5 

His  view  of  the    minis- 
try    39-41 

On  merit 78 

On  mortal  sins 81 

Against    assumptions    of 

Roman  bishops 82 

Theater  8,  9,  31, 51 

Trades,  Ministers  in 48-9 

Unity,    Interpolations    in 

Cyprian's  book  on  169,  208  ff 

Valerian  persecution 189 

Virgines  subintroductse 52 

War   reprobated  by  early 

Christians 30 


BW371  .F26 

Cyprian:  the  churchman, 

Princeton  Theological  Si",l"^Ejfff,|||j||j| 

1    1012  00030  6573 


